


Unrelenting Force

by Dreamshaper



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: F/F, Inspired by Skyrim, Some Fluff, Some angst, and some fighting, because I'm a huge nerd lol, some are changed, some elements are the same, this is AU-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:34:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 34
Words: 46,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28855161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: After living with her mentors in Sicily for years, Helena Bertinelli returns to Gotham to fulfill her destiny. She's certain she'll have to do it all alone, but when she meets Dinah Lance during her quest, that might turn out to be quite wrong.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dinah Lance
Comments: 167
Kudos: 47





	1. Something in the Air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Magone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magone/gifts).



> For my buddy Magone, who listens to my complains when I'm stuck and my ramblings about random ideas I have. :D

He finds her in the garden, as he has known he will, she’s always there after intense training sessions, and this day has been particularly intense, they have taught her more about the powers she has been born with, there is not much left which they can teach her now, they know this and she knows it, too.

What she doesn’t know is that this is good, that something is brewing, and it will be time for her to leave soon and to embrace her destiny.

He says nothing as he sits down next to her, grunting a bit, his bones are old and protest at sitting on the ground, the way she does; she glances at him, but doesn’t say anything, either, looking up ahead again after a moment, and for a while, they just sit there in silence.

“Your time here with us is coming to an end”, he is the one to break the silence, looking at her, and she looks back at him again, he can tell she’s not happy with hearing this, but he also can tell she perhaps has seen it coming, she is perceptive after all, as they have taught her to be.

“There is not much left we can teach you”, he adds, and she shrugs, then nods, and he knows this is not cockiness, simply an acknowledgement of a fact, “and we can feel… something, in the air. Read it in the stars, hear it in the wind. Something big is coming.”

“But it won’t be coming here”, she says, and it’s not a question, it’s a statement; he shakes his head, then sighs, he knows she won’t like what he will tell her next, but he also knows there is not really anything else he can say, there is no way to soften this blow.

“No”, he thus says, “it’s coming to Gotham. We need you there, we need you to stop what is happening before it’s too late.”

She swallows at the town’s name, but she doesn’t protest; it wouldn’t have helped anyway, she knows, this is her destiny, this is what she has been born to do, and if she has to do it in Gotham, then so be it, no matter how many painful memories she connects with this name, this city.

“You’re leaving in two days”, he says, and she gives a terse nod in response, “I know it’s soon, but we have no time to waste, and this was the earliest flight we could get for you.”

“Do you know what it is?” she asks in response, once again not bothering with protest; he sighs, then nods, and gives her a grave look, and for the first time, she shows emotion, looking nervous in response, she never has seen that look on his face before, not in all the years she has been here.

“It could mean the end of the world”, he tells her, and she swallows, she knows this is what she has been born to do, but it’s still so  _ big _ , “someone in this city is trying to bring them back. They want to bring back the dragons.”

* * *

Sionis and Zsasz are both in a  _ very  _ good mood when they arrive at the club that night, and she knows them well enough at this point to know that someone else has had a very bad day. 

“Everyone!” Sionis calls out, grinning and clapping his hands, “gather round, gather round. A round on me! I apologize for being late today, but with good reason. Drinks! Barkeep, get everyone their favourite, you know what they like!”

The barkeep lets out a vaguely agreeing noise, most of the people at the club at this time are regulars and he does know what they like; he moves to make the drinks, and while he pours and shakes and mixes, Sionis moves to sit down next to Dinah at the bar, the smile he gives her making her skin crawl.

“Little bird”, he greets her, and of course Zsasz is not far away, loitering slightly behind him, the smile on his face as unsettling as the one Sionis has given her moments ago, “I’ve missed your set, a pity. Would you mind singing me another song?”

“Of course, Roman”, she makes herself say with a smile of her own, it feels fake on her face, but she knows he can’t tell; she has a second to hope he won’t touch her, but of course he does, giving her another smarmy smile as he places his hand on her arm.

“Thank you”, he says feelingly, Dinah having to fight harder to keep the smile on her face the longer she can feel his palm on her bare skin, “you know how much I appreciate your voice. Well, then. Chop chop!”

He grins and pulls his hand back, and from the corner of her eye, Dinah can see Zsasz grin, too, and she wonders if the man is aware of how much she hates it when Sionis touches her, and if he enjoys seeing her in discomfort, she knows he’s a creepy sadist, so it wouldn’t surprise her.

_ You could scream at them both now and kill them, _ the thought flashes through her mind before she can stop herself, and she knows it’s true, she could do that, Sionis is so close to her and Zsasz is close to him; there are others in the room though, fairly innocent people, as innocent as someone who hangs out with Sionis can be, and she knows that many of them are armed.

She might be able to take down Sionis and Zsasz at once, but she wouldn’t make it out alive.

So, she just forces herself to keep the smile on her face as she rises from her seat and gives a brief nod; Sionis gives her another one of his grins, and as she turns away, she hears Zsasz chuckle, and for a moment, the urge to look back and scream at him is so strong, it almost overwhelms her.

She keeps it under control though, as she always does, taking a deep breath to steady herself as she starts walking; she can feel Sionis’ eyes on her, but she doesn’t look back, she has been working for him long enough to know better, he’d just take this is a sign of interest and increase his creepy behaviour towards her, and it’s bad enough as it is.

The spotlights click on as she steps on stage, illuminate her so Sionis and anyone else who bothers to look will have the perfect view of her; not many of the others do, but Sionis is watching, and the way he looks at her once again makes her skin crawl.

She really has to find a way to get away from this, Dinah thinks to herself as she sings, but judging from how Sionis looks at her, this might not happen anytime soon, no matter how much she wants it.


	2. Arrival

_ Shit, this city stinks. _ Helena wrinkles her nose as she gets out of the tiny, private plane - there was no way in Hell she could have gotten on a regular one, not with what she brings with her in the one duffel bag she carries - and wonders how long it will take her to get used to that smell; the air in Sicily has been fresh and clean, and this city is far from it, and she’s not even really  _ in  _ the city yet, the pilot having dropped her off on the outskirts, where nobody will notice her arrival.

The motorcycle is waiting for her near the landing spot, as she has been told it would; the men she has lived with haven’t been to the states in decades, but they have contacts, and they have used those contacts, the bike just one of the things which have been organized for her before she has come here.

A small apartment has been on the list, too, and this is where Helena goes now; and as she drives into the city, impressed by the bike they have gotten for her, she thinks back to what she has been told, the last talk she’s had with her mentor before she has gotten on the plane.

_ They want to bring back the dragons. You must find them, and stop them. This is your destiny, this is what you have been born to do. _

“That may be so”, Helena mutters to herself as she drives, having developed the habit of talking to herself during the years in Sicily, “but easier said than done.”

They haven’t really been able to help her with how to start her search, and she figures she can’t walk up to random people on the street and ask them if they know about anyone wanting to bring back an ancient evil; they have been able to give her  _ some _ information, some items the one doing this will need for their sinister ideas, and she figures this might be a good starting point, trying to figure out where these things might be found and talk to the people there.

The list of items is in her pocket, along with a wad of cash, and the phone the men have organized for her; she knows the list by heart at this point, and she’s not sure whom she actually would call with the phone, but it can’t hurt to have it, and it can’t hurt to have the cash, either, even though she figures she can get more, should she have to.

The apartment they have organized for her is in a perfectly average area of the city, not too shady, but also not too rich, so she won’t stand out much, at least not as long as she doesn’t show any of her skills; those would make her stand out anywhere though, Helena knows, and until this happens, it will be smart to lay low.

She wonders how long she will be able to do so, starting her search for the person who’s been collecting the things on her list might put her in the spotlight faster than she wants it to, but then, she doesn’t have much of a choice; the men have been right when they have told her it’s her destiny and that this is what she has been born to do, she might not have liked it much when they have told her, but it’s the truth.

Carefully, she puts the duffle bag onto the bed, not wanting to damage anything inside by tossing it around, then sits down next to it and pulls out the list; she knows it by heart, but it sort of connects her to the men who have been there for her the past fifteen years, this might be sentimental and a bit weird, but she is alone in this strange city now, and holding the list and looking at her mentor’s handwriting gives her a strange sense of comfort.

_ Dragon’s Blood. Magma Stone. Firebird’s Beak. The Diamond from the Ashes. _

She swallows at the last item on the list, and for a moment, she remembers, thinking of things she normally keeps to the far back of her mind, where they can’t come up unbidden; for a moment, she sees blood on her hands and on the floor and on the walls, then she blinks and takes in a deep breath, and it’s gone.

Slowly, Helena folds the list up, then puts it on the nightstand; she finds a loose floorboard beneath which she can hide her wads of cash, only keeping a little bit to carry around in her wallet, along with the fake driver’s license and ID her mentor has organized for her, she hopes she won’t need it, but it’s better to have it and not need it than the other way round.

With the list and the money taken care of, Helena moves to unpack the rest of her things, a bunch of clothes in black and purple, and her weapons, a crossbow and a set of knives; it’s not the crossbow she has been training with, it’s a new model, one fit for a professional, the man who has taught her has said, and it lies well in her hand, the weight is just right and she just knows she can hit any target she wants to with that.

_ Why do I need to know how to use this _ , she remembers asking, all those years ago,  _ with the other things I can do? _

_ Because those other things take a toll _ , he has said, patiently explaining why she needs to know how to use weapons, why hand to hand combat and her other skills aren’t enough,  _ this, you can rely on. You maintain it, and it will never let you down. _

Helena runs her fingers over the smooth black metal of the weapon, then puts it on her nightstand as well, where she can easily reach it in case she has to; so far, nobody knows she’s in Gotham, those who aren’t supposed to know don’t even know she’s alive, but once she starts her search, she knows people might find out, might realize who she is, and once that does happen and they start coming for her, she wants to be prepared.

_ Start with the dragon’s blood _ , she remembers what her mentor has suggested, one last bit of advice just before she has left the house in Sicily, they both have known how unlikely it is she will come back, and he has given her one of his rare hugs before he has told her,  _ it will be easiest to find. _

Easy at least, she thinks, compared to the other things; the diamond will be hardest, she knows, but then, she doesn’t need all four items, technically, she just needs one to stop it all, but on the other hand, it might be safer to find and destroy them all, put an end to the threat once and for all.

“Rest, for now”, she mutters to herself as she lies back on the bed, folding her hands beneath her head and looking up at the ceiling, “then get started when the sun comes up.”

Closing her eyes, she empties her mind and relaxes, as she has been taught; and soon, she is fast asleep, and she hears the dragon in her dreams, it is stirring and twitching, reminding her of the danger and of her duty even as she rests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have books on my nightstand, Helena of course has her crossbow there XD


	3. Contact

Helena wakes at sunrise in the next morning, her inner clock always has been working well and doesn’t disappoint her this time, either, not even with the time difference she has to deal with; at least, she’s not jetlagged, she thinks to herself as she showers, she feels awake and alert, and she figures that’s a good thing, Gotham is a dangerous city and she’ll need to be alert and careful, her search will gain her unwanted attention sooner or later and the last thing she needs is someone to catch her unaware.

Her mentor hasn’t been able to tell her where exactly she’ll be able to find the Dragon’s Blood, but he has been able to give her a name and an address, someone who might be able to help; and this is where Helena gets ready to go now, hiding some knives on her person as she gets dressed, then checking her crossbow to make sure it is loaded, clean and functional before she slings it onto her back.

Carrying it like this, she reflects as she zips up her jacket, would have made her stand out in any other place on earth, but this is Gotham, and nobody will bat an eye; she doesn’t remember much of her time here, having left fifteen years ago, and she has been a child back then, too, but she remembers that it’s a place filled with strange and shady people, and even with a crossbow on her back, she won’t stand out.

She has memorized the address of the contact along with the list of items she needs to find, but she still takes a look on the piece of paper her mentor has written it down on, just to be on the safe side; then she rips it up in tiny little pieces and throws it into the trash before she heads out, once more quite happy about the bike she has gotten as she gets onto it.

Still, despite knowing how much faster she could go, Helena does try her best to stick to the speed limit, the crossbow might not make her stand out, but if she gets over by a cop, they would still ask her questions about it, questions she doesn’t really want to answer; she gets to the address without incidence though, frowning when she parks at the building.

Helena hasn’t been quite sure what to expect, but it certainly hasn’t been a Chinese restaurant, and for a moment, she wonders if she has been given the wrong place, or has memorized the wrong place, then she shrugs those doubts off - her mentor has told her that she will encounter strange things during her quest, and perhaps, that is one of them.

So, she kills the engine and strides over to the door; the man behind the counter certainly looks old enough to be her contact, and he eyes her as she makes her way to him, apparently able to tell at once that she is not a regular customer.

“What can I get you”, he still asks, skillfully ignoring how she hasn’t even glanced at the menu for a second; Helena stops at the counter and leans on it, and she can tell at once he is scanning her for hidden weapons, perhaps worried she will aim that crossbow at him any moment and demand that he hands over all his money.

“Information”, she says instead of threatening him, and he raises his brows, “I hear you are the one to talk to when looking for… rare items.”

“You might have heard right”, he says, eying her again, and she wonders if he has an idea who she is, or if he is completely clueless, not sure if he has been in this city fifteen years ago, “depending on what you are looking for. And what you are willing to pay.”

“Dragon’s Blood”, she tells him, and from how he sets his jaw a second later, she knows he won’t just outright tell her, no matter how much money she might offer him, despite what he has said about payment moments ago.

“I can’t help you”, he says, voice cold now, and she holds back a sigh, she doesn’t want to tell him who she is, but she knows this is the one thing which might make him change his mind, “and you should not try to find anyone else to help you with this. You don’t know what you are trying to find here.”

“I do know”, Helena tells him, the doubtful look he gives her in response making her sigh now after all before she lowers her voice, it’s just her and him in here right now, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“I know very well”, she quietly says, prompting him to raise his brows again, “better than you, probably. I’m Helena Bertinelli.”

His mouth actually falls open, he obviously hasn’t expected  _ that _ ; to his credit, he recovers quickly though, and the sceptical look returns to his face, Helena sighing again as she knows where this is going.

“Easy to claim, harder to prove”, he says, exactly what she has expected, “so prove it.”

“Fine”, she says, rolling her eyes - before she shows him, and once he has gotten over his obvious shock, he tells her everything she wants to know and more, giving her all the information he has, still looking shellshocked by the time he is done talking and Helena leaves, not looking back as she gets onto her bike and drives off.

* * *

Helena heads out to the location she has been given the moment the sun has gone down, she would have loved to go there right after getting the information, but she knows what Dragon’s Blood can do if the sun hits it; and so, she waits until dark, figuring this will also make it easier for her, as it means she won’t have to stroll up to the place in broad daylight.

It doesn’t take her long to find the place, it’s sort of hard to miss, being the big mansion it is; and she is very aware that it is near her childhood home, but she ignores this and the brief pang it causes in her chest, telling herself she has to focus on the mission and that she can’t let this distract her.

She parks a safe distance away, and uses the other buildings and narrow alleyways between them for cover as she approaches the house; the man living there, according to her contact, has no idea what he actually owns with the Dragon’s Blood, but he does own a whole bunch of other valuable things, and Helena figures he has guards patrolling, and the last thing she needs now is to be caught by them.

If there are any guards patrolling on the grounds outside, she can’t see them during the time she watches the house from the shadows of an alley opposite to the building; what she does see though is a car pull up, two men getting out of it, and when she gets a closer look at one of them, her stomach turns.

She has seen him before, once, and while it hasn’t been for long, she knows she’ll never forget that face; the other man says something, and he laughs, and she’s not close enough to hear it, but she knows what it sounds like.

Helena has heard him laugh after all, when he has been one of those who’d gunned down her family, she still hears him laugh in her nightmares, and seeing Victor Zsasz here, tonight, at this building, stuns her so much that all she can do is stand there and watch while his buddy and he go inside.

The gunfire starts not long after that, and as she stands there and listens and her stomach is clenching painfully and her heart is racing, Helena just knows that he’s not the one getting gunned down - and that this will be harder than she has thought, if he is involved, no matter how big or small this involvement will be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, bad timing Helena.


	4. Complications

It’s risky to follow them, Helena knows, but she can’t just let them leave without knowing where they are going; Zsasz’ buddy has been holding the Dragon’s Blood after all when they have left the house, admiring it in the artificial light of the streetlamps, and while she has been tempted to attack then and there, she hasn’t done it, this would have been rash and reckless, and she has been taught to not be rash and reckless, no matter how much she wants to.

_ You can do many things _ , she remembers what her mentor has said,  _ but healing wounds is not one of them. You can get hurt like anyone else. You can get  _ killed _ like anyone else. Always keep that in mind. _

She wonders if they know what they have taken when they’ve gunned down the people inside the building to get the Dragon’s Blood, but she hasn’t seen them carry out anything else, and that convinces her that this is what they have been after; seeing the somewhat inconspicuous gem in the man’s hand has made her anger flare, he has no right to touch it, but it also has made her worried.

Helena doesn’t know who Zsasz’ friend is, but she knows the glint of madness when she sees it, and she is fairly certain she has seen it in the man’s eyes when he has been looking at the gem.

And so, she follows them, making sure to not get too close to the car, she really doesn’t want them to notice her; and she seems to be doing a good job, from what she can see, they don’t look back at her, and they don’t start driving around weirdly through alleys, so it doesn’t appear as if they are trying to shake her off.

They stop at what looks like a nightclub in one of the seedier parts of town, Helena making a point of driving past with the flow of traffic so they won’t pay attention to her; through her rearview mirror, she can see them go inside, and circles back, parking in an alley nearby, where her bike won’t be too visible, but also not too far away in case she has to make a quick run for it.

For a few moments, she then just stands there, looking at the club; she’s not sure if it’s actually smart to go inside, she’s fairly certain Zsasz won’t recognize her, not after all these years and not when everyone thinks she’s actually dead, but stranger things have happened, and she really doesn’t want to be on his home turf in case of a confrontation.

On the other hand though, Zsasz and his buddy  _ have _ the Dragon’s Blood now, and Helena worries that they have no good intentions with it; since they haven’t taken anything else, it seems likely they have been after the gem and only that gem, and as it has no monetary value, she figures they at least must have an idea what it can be used for.

_ It’s a nightclub _ , she then tells herself,  _ there will be a crowd, you can hide among them. Just get in there, get a first good look, and come back again tomorrow, with a plan. _

This seems like a good idea, and while she doesn’t want to leave her crossbow behind, she figures she has to; she hides it near her bike, now regretting that there’s no storage space on the vehicle, then straightens up, running both hands through her hair before she walks to the club’s entrance.

There’s a bouncer at the door, and he looks at her critically when she approaches, but doesn’t make a move to stop her; and when she enters, the place indeed is quite full, Helena telling herself this is good even as her hands start to sweat, she’s really not used to such crowds and she doesn’t enjoy it much.

_ Don’t stand out _ , she berates herself, scanning the room for exits and possible weapons, this is something she has been training for and it calms her down to do so,  _ you’re just one guest among many. He won’t recognize you. _

As it is, right now, Helena can’t even see Zsasz, and she’s glad for that; she keeps scanning the room for him as she moves towards the bar, after a moment of hesitation ordering beer, she would have preferred something non-alcoholic, but everyone else around her seems to be drinking alcohol, and she doesn’t want the barkeep to remember her due to an unusual order.

So, she gets her beer and pays, then turns and moves to a slightly darker area of the club, where she can have a good view of most of the room; and now, she does spot Zsasz, he’s sitting at one of the tables with his buddy, the way he is fully focused on the other man as he is talking making it quite clear to Helena who the boss is in this relationship.

He looks at him almost with reverence, Helena ponders as she takes a sip of her beer; not wanting to stare at him for too long, and maybe get caught, she looks away again after a few moments, and just as her gaze moves to the stage at the opposite side of the room, the spotlights there light up, and she nearly gets blinded for her troubles, holding back a curse as she blinks against the sudden light.

No one else seems to pay much attention to the stage, Helena notes, no one but Zsasz’ buddy, who is looking towards it now; and a few moments later, a woman steps into the spotlight, and Helena blinks, she has seen her share of beautiful women, but this one has to be on top of the list.

Then, the woman steps up to the microphone and starts to sing, and Helena finds herself mesmerized, there is  _ something _ about her voice which resonates with her, which sends shivers up and down her spine and gives her goosebumps, something she never has experienced before.

For the duration of the song, she forgets completely about Zsasz and his buddy and her mission, all she can focus on is the woman on stage and her voice; her mentor would have scolded her for letting her attention lapse like this, but she can’t help herself, it’s as if she is hypnotized, unable to look away for even a second.

Then, the song ends, and it’s as if she snaps out of a trance; she blinks, and takes a sip of her beer in an attempt to regain her composure, glad that no one seems to have noticed her weird behaviour, at least, a quick glance around the room shows her that no one is looking at her oddly, and she figures that is a good thing.

“Bravo!” Zsasz’ buddy calls out, clapping his hands, and after a moment, a few other guests clap too, reluctantly though, as if they only do it because he does; this tells her that he might not only be the boss of Zsasz, but has some bigger role in this club, too, the owner, perhaps, or at least someone of importance.

She files that away as potentially useful knowledge, glancing at him and at Zsasz again, neither of them aware of her; and then, the woman on stage starts another song, and Helena once more finds herself mesmerized.

Perhaps, she thinks as she watches the singer, she is risking life and limb right now, risking discovery and being reckless and stupid; she can’t help herself though, there is something about this woman which demands all of her attention, and she’s powerless to withstand it.

This might complicate things, she knows, but she can feel a strange connection to this woman, and she knows better than to just ignore it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dinah: *sings*  
> Helena: <3


	5. Hope

Dinah has been all too aware of Sionis keeping his eyes on her during her set, and once she is done, all she actually wants is to go home and shower, wash away the memory of his eyes on her body; she knows he wants her to “socialize” after a set though, claims this makes her more approachable to the people at the club, but she knows he just wants a chance to ogle her from closer nearby, and maybe touch her a few times, but as it is, she has to bear this for a while longer, until she finds a way out of this mess which doesn’t endanger her.

Sionis has made it very clear to her after all, the last time she has tried to quit a few months ago, that he doesn’t consider her exactly an employee, but more as an object he owns, even if he does pay her; and he doesn’t like to lose things he owns, she shudders as she thinks back to the moment he has told her this, Zsasz smirking behind him, the look on his face alone has been enough to tell her that nothing pleasant waits for her if she insists on quitting.

So he has asked her to rethink, and she has stayed, for now; she needs a way out, she knows, but as it is, she has no idea how to actually get out, she has no one she trusts enough to ask for help, no one she is close enough to risk it.

And so, Dinah doesn’t head straight home, but changes into less flashy clothes, and not only to get more comfortable, Sionis chooses what she wears on stage and she hates it; she’s glad every time she can take off what he makes her wear, and slip into her own choice of clothing, feeling a bit better once she has changed, but she still has to fake a smile when she walks out of the backstage area and to the main area of the club.

“Dinah”, Sionis calls out the very second he spots her, and she has to struggle to keep the smile going as he waves her over, “little bird. You were magnificent, as always.”

“Thank you”, she responds with a carefully calculated polite tone, and it takes all of her willpower to not step away when he almost casually slides his arm around her waist, his hand ending up on her hip; Zsasz is watching her closely, and smiling a bit, and she knows for sure now he can tell how uncomfortable she is.

He can tell, and he is just waiting for her to slip up, so he can rat her out to Sionis and perhaps get a chance to do what she has avoided when she has told Sionis she’s not quitting after all. 

Once again, she feels the urge to scream at them both, but she knows this would be suicide, doing it right here in the club; and so, she gives Sionis another polite smile as she lets him know she’ll get a drink, glad when he pulls his hand back in response, allowing her to step away.

Quickly, she makes her way to the bar, hopefully, a drink will calm her nerves; the urge to scream at Sionis and Zsasz is growing stronger with every day, and she doesn’t know how much longer she can withstand it, no matter if it’d be suicide to use it on them in the club or anywhere near Sionis’ henchmen or not.

“The usual?” the barkeep asks her when she steps up to the bar, as he does every evening she sings here, and as she does every time, she nods; he nods as well, then goes to mix her drink, rum and coke, putting it down in front of her a minute later.

“Thanks”, Dinah mutters, then takes hold of the glass and gulps down half of it in one go; and just when she puts it down on the counter again, Zsasz steps up to her, smiling at her, and immediately, that sight alone is enough to make her skin crawl, before he even says anything.

“The boss might not notice”, he tells her, leaning close so no one else can hear what he is saying, going as far as placing one hand on her back, and it takes everything she has to not flinch away, throw her drink in his face or both, “but I do. I notice how you feel when he touches you. He won’t like it if I tell him.”

“Good for you”, Dinah says, it takes a bit to keep her voice steady, but she is proud of herself when she pulls it off, “did you just come over here to tell me this? What are you going for, Zsasz?”

“I want you to treat the boss with more respect”, he says, and she nearly laughs in his face, despite how dangerous this would be for her, “he takes care of you. Don’t forget that.”

Someone else steps up to them, closer than necessary, considering how much free room there is at the counter; Zsasz briefly glances at the one interrupting, then pulls his hand back and leaves without another word, Dinah letting out the breath she hasn’t realized she has been holding, almost automatically looking over at the one who has interrupted this, not sure if the person is aware of it or not.

It’s a woman she’s never seen before, tall and dressed in dark colours, and she’s looking back at her, and when their eyes meet, Dinah feels a strange sensation in her stomach, something she never has felt before.

“He was bothering you”, the woman says, not asking, but making a statement, and all Dinah can do is blink, she doesn’t know who this is and the woman hasn’t even said five words to her, but when she hears her voice, deep and a bit gravelly, the sensation in her stomach is there again, and she feels oddly drawn to her, something else she never has experienced before.

“So you stepped up so close to help me out?” she makes herself say, perhaps sounding a bit snippier than would have been polite, but she can’t quite help herself, she has made a habit of not letting anyone get close the past few years, and some weird stomach feelings won’t make her change that, “how noble. Maybe you shouldn’t do that though if you don’t know what you might be getting into.”

“I know exactly what I’m getting into”, the woman replies, holding her gaze, and as she speaks on, Dinah feels that strange sensation in her belly again, she feels as if the woman’s eyes have captivated her and her voice only adds to that, almost mesmerizing her and keeping her from looking away, and she wonders if the woman is aware of that, if maybe, it’s some sort of power she has, even though she doesn’t know why anyone would use a superpower on her, after all, to the world out there, she is a simple nightclub singer, and one not many people even listen to, at that.

“I know who he is, and what he does”, the woman goes on, “what I don’t know is why someone like you would willingly work anywhere near him.”

“What do you mean”, Dinah asks before she can stop herself, if this had been anyone else, she would have laughed and would have walked away, but it feels like she just can’t do that as long as that woman is looking at her, she can’t even break the eye contact, so getting up and walking off seems like an impossible task. 

“There’s a power, in you”, the woman tells her, and all Dinah can do is stare at her, this is impossible, she thinks to herself, no one knows, she has made sure no one knows, and yet this stranger stands here and casually tells her this, “it connects us. I know you can feel it, too.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, Dinah makes herself say, and finally, she does manage to look away and quickly takes a step back, whatever strange hold this woman has had on her is broken now, even though her stomach is still tingling weirdly, “you got the wrong lady, woman. I’m just a singer.”

She turns and walks away, but can’t stop herself from looking back at the stranger, and their eyes meet again… and as they do, Dinah finds herself wondering if perhaps, this is her way out, if this stranger can provide the help she needs, and for the first time in a long while, she allows herself to hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah Dinah, Helena might be helpful XD


	6. Way Out

Helena’s first talk with the singer hasn’t gone as well as she has hoped, she is fairly certain that the woman has  _ some _ sort of power in her voice, perhaps something she isn’t aware of yet, but she’s not willing to give up after one not so good talk; she has been taught to do this alone, but she can tell that the singer can be helpful, Sionis seems to trust her at least a bit and perhaps, she can make use of that to get at the Dragon’s Blood, it can’t hurt to have someone around who knows the man better than she does. 

So, once she is back at her apartment, she looks up at the club, and learns the singer’s name - Dinah Lance - and her schedule there; she’ll have another set in the next evening, and Helena immediately decides she will be there for that, she won’t give up so fast and she wants another chance to talk to the woman, perhaps get her to change her mind and help her out.

She’s not quite sure why she is so drawn to Dinah, but what she is sure about is that Dinah has felt something similar, judging from the way she has been looking at her when Helena has approached her at the bar; anyone else might have shrugged this off as humbug and nonsense, but Helena has been taught to trust her gut about these things, and her gut tells her that there is more to Dinah than one can see at the first glance.

At least, she thinks to herself as she undresses and gets ready for bed, she knows where the Dragon’s Blood is, and she might have an in to get it with Dinah; and she wonders if that the first item Sionis has managed to get his hands on or if he already has collected more than that, quite sure at this point that he knows exactly what the Dragon’s Blood is and what it can do.

She doesn’t know the man, only knowing his name and that he is the owner of the club from the club’s website; from what she has seen from him though, she can tell he’s sleazy, and he’s been quite creepy with Dinah, and even though she doesn’t know really know Dinah, either, it has angered to see how he treats her, the way he has looked at her and has touched her despite her obvious discomfort.

Perhaps, Helena ponders as she lies in bed and looks up at the ceiling, she’ll only cause more trouble for Dinah, involving her in all of this; she can’t deny the connection she has felt to the woman though, and she believes Dinah has felt it, too, and she knows it would be wrong to just ignore it, certainly, there is a reason why she has felt that, as someone who has been raised with a lot of talk about destiny and fate, she knows better than to just shrug such things off.

As she lies there and waits for sleep to come, she starts forming a vague plan; it all hinges on Dinah being willing to talk to her in the next evening, and she’s aware of this, but she tells herself that certainly, Dinah won’t ignore the connection between them, just as she herself can’t ignore it, and by the time she does drift off into sleep, she feels confident and good, certain that everything will work out and that she will have the gem in her possession soon.

* * *

Helena spends much of the next day at the Gotham library, doing research on the computers there for the whereabouts of the other three items on her list; she doesn’t like doing this in such a public place though, and ends up using some of her cash to buy a cheap laptop so she can do it at her home, where nobody can glance on her screen as they walk past.

Once that has been taken care of, she works out for a while, knowing she has to keep her body in shape; after that, she meditates a bit, her mentor always has told her how important it is to have a clear, calm mind, and finally, it is time to head out to the club and set her plan in motion.

By the time she arrives there, Dinah is already up on stage and singing; this time, Helena doesn’t hide away in one of the darker corners, but moves to a spot closer to the stage where Dinah can see her, and it doesn’t take long until their eyes meet, also thanks to the fact that once more, Helena feels hypnotized by the singer, unable to look away.

Dinah isn’t quite as caught this time, she notices, but the singer’s gaze keeps straying back to her as she sings; and while she hasn’t been all too welcoming or open to what Helena has to say the previous evening, she doesn’t look dismayed at having her there again, something Helena hopes is a good sign.

Once the singer is done with her set, has bowed and left the stage, Helena moves to the bar, hoping Dinah will go there for a drink again; she keeps her eyes on the room as she waits, and is not quite surprised to see Sionis wave Dinah over the moment she enters the club’s general area, watching how he talks to her and touches her again in the process, and wondering if he has noticed the brief flicker of discomfort on Dinah’s face at the contact, but as he doesn’t stop, he either hasn’t or he doesn’t care.

Neither option endears him much to Helena, and she feels angry as she takes note of the sleazy way Sionis is grinning at Dinah; he talks to her for another minute or two, then Dinah finally manages to excuse herself, and Helena feels glad when the singer walks straight to her side.

“You’re back”, Dinah greets her, eying her as she sits down on the barstool next to her, “and this time, you didn’t even need to scare Zsasz away.”

“Yet”, Helena dryly responds, glad when this gets her a little smile from the singer; the barkeep interrupts their reunion, asking Dinah if she wants the usual, and Helena doesn’t say anything until the singer has been given her drink, not wanting the man to step close when she’s talking about important things.

“I imagine you’re not here because you enjoy this place so much”, Dinah says, after having taken a sip of her drink, “but don’t tell me out here why you are actually here, the wrong people might hear.”

Helena raises an eyebrow at that, that does sound as if Dinah is willing to listen to her now, but doesn’t want to discuss anything at the club, a reasonable thought, Helena decides; so, she just nods, and Dinah takes in a slow breath in response, then leans closer, keeping her voice low to make sure only Helena hears what she has to say.

“You were right”, Dinah lets her know, and Helena can tell it isn’t easy for her to admit this, so she gives her credit for doing so anyway, “with what you said yesterday, about… the connection.”

“I know”, Helena replies, earning another wry smile from the singer; then, Dinah takes in another deep breath, glancing at Sionis to make sure he isn’t watching her talk with Helena before she goes on, the taller woman raising her eyebrows at what the singer tells her.

“There is nothing I can do though as long as I’m working here”, Dinah tells her, “Sionis won’t just let me quit, he’s made that very clear to me.”

“Well, I might need your help with something”, Helena lets her know after considering for a moment, figuring it can’t hurt to make the offer, “you help me out, I’ll make sure he won’t touch you.”

Dinah looks sceptical for a moment, then reconsiders, she knows she doesn’t have much of a choice, and Helena does look capable; and so, she nods after a moment, then tells the taller woman to meet her at a diner not far from the club in an hour, adding it would look suspicious if they left together, something Helena has to agree with.

“I’ll meet you there”, she thus says, making Dinah nod this time; and with that, Helena finishes her drink, then gets up and leaves, quickly finding the diner the singer has been talking about and choosing a booth at the far back there, knowing that for now, all she can do is wait and see if Dinah will show up, hoping that she will and that this hasn’t just been some weird way to get rid of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, let's hope Dinah will show ;)


	7. Diner

Exactly one hour after Helena has left the club, Dinah enters the diner, Helena taking note of how she glances around before she moves to the booth; she wonders if Sionis really is that bad, but then, she has more or less witnessed him gun down people to get the Dragon’s Blood, so it probably shouldn’t surprise her that Dinah is frightened of him and worried about being seen here with her.

“Hey”, Helena greets her as she slides into the booth with her, pushing one of the menus on the table over to her, “hungry? I’m paying.”

“I could eat”, Dinah says after a moment, taking hold of the menu; she feels a bit surreal as she hits here, with this stranger, realizing she doesn’t even know her name yet, and yet they possibly about are to conspire against Sionis, the woman has said she might need her help with something.

“But, you know”, she adds while Helena waves at the waitress, “I usually only eat with people I know. So. Who are you?”

“Helena”, Helena replies, deciding to not reveal her last name for the moment, she’s not sure how much is common knowledge of what has happened here in this city fifteen years ago, but a diner is not the best place to reveal this, no matter how much Dinah knows about it.

“Alright, Helena”, Dinah says, the waitress coming over before she can go on, and they both order burger with fries, something Helena usually wouldn’t have gone for, but which might be one of the safer options on the menu; Dinah waits until the waitress has retreated, then looks at her again, Helena holding her gaze with ease, feeling their connection again, and knowing Dinah can feel it, too.

“This is fucking creepy”, Dinah mumbles after a few seconds have ticked by, shaking her head slightly as if to clear it, “I look at you and… I don’t know, it’s like… I’ve known you, for ages. And my stomach does this weird tingly thing. Please tell me you feel this or something similar, at least, and that I’m not going insane.”

“You’re not”, Helena reassures her at once, glad that she now has confirmation about this strange connection, even though she has been quite sure already anyway that Dinah feels it, too, “I do feel this too. I felt it the moment you stepped on stage and started to sing, yesterday.”

“I did when we talked”, Dinah admits, not quite sure what to think about this, but then, there are stranger things happening in Gotham every day, “so you… have a power?”

“I do”, Helena tells her, figuring it won’t do to deny it, not if she wants Dinah’s help, “but here is not a good place to demonstrate.”

“Same”, Dinah agrees, then momentarily hesitates, realizing she just has revealed that she does have a power, as well; the waitress, thankfully, chooses this moment to bring their food, and she has a few moments to gather her thoughts as the woman puts the plates down and wishes them a good appetite.

“You know”, Dinah goes on the moment the waitress is out of earshot again, “there really must be some weird connection between us or something, because I haven’t told anyone about my power in twenty years. And here you are, I barely know you, all I know is your name, your first one at that, and I just told you.”

Helena just shrugs, she knows they are connected somehow, and now, she wonders what power exactly Dinah has - as far as she has been taught, there’s always only ever one like her in each generation, but then, this might not be true, there is much they don’t know about what she has been born with, and the records and books aren’t complete, either, many of them having been lost or destroyed over the decades and centuries.

“So”, Dinah is the one to speak up again after having taken a bite of her burger, prompting Helena to do the same, “you said you might need my help with something?”

“Yeah”, Helena confirms, interrupting herself with eating a few fries before she goes on, “Sionis has something I… need. He acquired it yesterday, killing a bunch of people to get it.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him”, Dinah sighs, Helena raising her eyebrows at this rather subdued reaction, “probably with Zsasz to help him, he usually doesn’t get his own hands dirty and has him do the actual nasty shit.”

“Zsasz was there, too, yes”, Helena lets her know, keeping her tone carefully controlled, for now, Dinah doesn’t need to know she also has a very personal reason to hate Victor Zsasz, “so I will need your help to get what he took. Before he can… use it, and cause chaos.”

“What is it”, Dinah wants to know, curious despite knowing how dangerous it might be to get involved in this, she will not only piss Sionis off by trying to quit this time, but actually help take something he will see as his property, and he won’t forgive that, “if you want my help, I’ll need to know more than that. You don’t know him like I do, so let me tell you, if he gets his hands on us after we take that thing, we’ll die, but not quick and painless.”

“...it’s a gem”, Helena decides to be open with her after a moment, they are strangely connected after all and Dinah has a point, “called Dragon’s Blood. It’s one of four, he only took that and nothing else from what I could see, so he must know what it can do, and if he get the other three, as well…”

“Then what?” Dinah asks, she’s not quite sure she really wants to know, because Helena now looks quite worried and glum at the mere idea, but then, she does want to know what she might be getting into, she will risk her life after all, so whatever Helena’s cause might be, it better be worth it. 

“Then he can pull off an ancient ritual”, Helena tells her, winning some time with unnecessary details as she’s not quite sure how Dinah will react to what she is about to reveal, “and if he does pull it off, he… He’ll bring back the dragons.”

Dinah stares at her, for so long that Helena starts to worry she doesn’t believe her after all, will laugh in her face in a moment and then get up and leave without another word; finally though, Dinah seems to recover from her shock at least a little bit, clearing her throat before she repeats what Helena just has revealed.

“He’ll bring back the dragons”, she says, Helena nodding along, “as in, bigass fire breathing lizards?”

“With wings”, Helena helpfully adds, and Dinah blinks, now being the one to win time by taking a bite of her food, even though her appetite pretty much has vanished when Helena has revealed this.

“Okay”, she says after a few moments of gathering her thoughts, “let’s assume this is correct, and really can work. Then what? He brings them back and thinks they will do his bidding?”

“Probably”, Helena replies with a sigh, Dinah raising her brows, she’s not sure she can believe this talk about gems and dragons, but that idea does fit Sionis and his delusions of grandeur, “but either way, it’ll be bad. If he can control them, I don’t know if the ritual does allow that, he’ll be unstoppable. If he can’t, they will burn the world because they can. I… we have to stop him.”

“Show me”, Dinah demands in response, Helena giving her a confused look as she’s not quite sure what Dinah wants to be shown, “your power, I mean. I want to see that before I make any sort of choice.”

“Okay”, Helena agrees at once, “I’ll just pay, then we can go somewhere more quiet and I can show you.”

Dinah nods, and Helena waves the waitress over; she pays, and tips well, the singer notes, then they head out together, out to find some quiet, private place where Helena can demonstrate her powers and hopefully get Dinah on her side fully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, what will Helena show to Dinah? xD


	8. Powers

They walk for a while, until they find a somewhat abandoned area of town, Helena glancing around to make sure no one is there to see them before she stops in a dark side alley, Dinah stepping up to her side, arching an eyebrow at her as she takes in their surroundings.

“You know”, she casually comments, “anyone else might realize it has been a bad idea, what with how you took me to a really lonely place. I take it though you’re not just making up a really elaborate story to murder me here now.”

“No”, Helena tells her with a small smirk, Dinah smiling back at her after a moment, “but stay where you are now, I don’t want to accidentally hurt you. Watch.”

She turns so that she is facing away from Dinah, and looks at a bunch of trashcans a few feet away; and then, she lets out a few harsh sounding words in a language Dinah has never heard before, it sounds  _ old _ and rough, the singer letting out a startled yelp and actually hopping back when a stream of flame blasts from Helena’s mouth at the last word and sets the trashcans on fire.

“Holy shit!” she manages, she’s not quite sure what she has expected, but it certainly hasn’t been the woman suddenly breathing fire, “you set that on fire! With your  _ breath _ !”

“With my voice”, Helena corrects her, only confusing her further, “but yeah, I did. I, um, I can do other things too.”

“Holy shit”, Dinah says again, looking at her, quite impressed, Helena fidgeting a bit beneath her gaze, she never has used this power before anyone who’s not one of her mentors before, and it might have been reckless to show Dinah, but then, she does need the woman’s help, and she’s fairly certain Dinah believes and trusts her now.

“Okay, wow”, Dinah goes on, still looking impressed, but now smiling, as well, and Helena is glad to see her smile, it makes her feel all tingly inside, something she blames on the weird connection they have, “that’s badass. And, well, you’ve shown me yours, so I’ll show you mine. Cover your ears.”

Helena isn’t quite sure why that would be necessary, but does so, putting her hands on her ears; Dinah takes a brief look at her to make sure she really has done as she has been told, then pulls in a deep breath - before she lets out a short, but impressively loud cry, Helena looking impressed as well when the trashcans she has lit on fire minutes ago are hit by an invisible force and fly off, the fire going out when they hit the ground several feet away.

“I can also do this with people”, Dinah tells her once she has gestured at Helena that it’s okay and that she can stop covering her ears, “it does damage to their brains too, if I do it long and loud enough. It’s called the Canary Cry.”

“Impressive”, Helena says, not quite surprised anymore that they have some sort of connection, considering they both have voice-based powers, “were you born with that…?”

“Yeah”, Dinah confirms, glancing at the trashcans for a moment before she focuses on Helena again, “my mother could do it, too. She used it to fight crime until… until that went wrong one night and she was killed.”

“I’m sorry”, Helena says, a bit shocked at hearing this, but then, she figures she is not the only one with a tragic backstory; Dinah gives her a wry smile and shrugs, kicking a stray piece of trash out of the way, letting out a small sigh afterwards, and suddenly, all Helena wants to do is step closer and hug her and make her feel better, but she fights the urge down, telling herself there is no way she can do it, with how shortly they actually have known each other, no matter if they feel a connection or not.

“It was a long time ago”, Dinah tells her, trying to sound as if she’s not bothered much by it, but Helena can read the truth in her eyes; she doesn’t call Dinah out though, just nods insteads and gives her a brief smile, glad when Dinah smiles back after a moment.

“So”, the singer then says, in an attempt to change the topic, and while it’s a bit clumsy, Helena is glad Dinah is the one to bring it up, “how can I help you with getting that Dragon’s Breath from Sionis?”

“Dragon’s Blood”, Helena corrects her, “and honestly, I’m not sure how to approach this. He has it, so I assume it’s in his home, so we need to get in there.”

“Yeah, I can help with that”, Dinah says at once, Helena smiling a bit, “he lives right above the club, I can get you up there.”

“Great”, Helena says, relieved, as this makes her task at least a tiny bit easier, Dinah smiling back at her, “and once we got it, I will make sure you can get out of there with no danger from him. Deal?”

“Deal”, Dinah says at once, she might be signing her death sentence now, she’s aware of that, but with how the urge to scream at Sionis and Zsasz has been growing stronger and stronger, she knows she has to at least try to get out of there before she does something stupid, and if Helena is her way out of this, then so be it.

Helena holds her hand out to her, with an oddly solemn look on her face, and for a moment, Dinah feels surreal again, here she is, standing in some dark side alley with this woman she has known for literal hours and making dangerous deals with her; then, she shrugs that off and reaches out to shake her hand, and when they touch, it’s as if lightning has struck her right in her core, her eyes widening, and judging from how Helena pulls in a sharp breath, she has felt it too.

“What the fuck”, Dinah says before she can stop herself, pulling back just to be on the safe side, her skin still tingling where it has been in contact with Helena’s, “you felt that too, right. What the Hell was that?”

“I don’t know”, Helena honestly replied, glancing down on her own palm for a moment, as if she might find the answer there, “it might be because of how… connected we are. If it makes you feel better, I’ve never experienced anything like this before, either.”

“Yeah”, Dinah says, raising her brows at her, “it does make me feel better that the woman who can set things on fire with her voice and do other stuff with it too never has felt that, either.”

“Good”, Helena seriously replies, and Dinah gives her a  _ look _ ; it takes her a moment, then she clears her throat, to Dinah’s amusement blushing a bit, the singer finding herself smile again a moment later at what Helena says next, “and you were being sarcastic, which I completely missed. Sorry, I’m not good with sarcasm.”

“Don’t worry”, Dinah says with a small laugh, making Helena smile a bit again as well, “you hang around with me, you’ll learn it in no time.”

Helena lets out a snort of her own at that, then remembers they actually have work to do; and so, she suggests they get out of this place and to hers, so they can start planning, Dinah nodding her agreement, and as they leave together, she thinks back to what she has felt when she has touched Helena, wonders if she will feel it again and if it truly is just the strange connection between them or if there is more to it than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voice-based powers ftw :D


	9. Burglary

Anyone else, Helena figures as she carefully straps knives to her ankles, would be nervous now, but she has been trained to do this, has spent the past fifteen years learning how to do this and other things; and so, she feels calm, almost detached, taking a moment to make sure the knives sit properly and won’t come loose when she walks or kicks, then slings her crossbow onto her back, she hopes this will go flawlessly and she won’t need it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

_ I’ll keep him busy _ , she remembers what Dinah has said to her during their planning phase right here in this apartment,  _ after my set. Get into the backstage area, there’s a door marked Private, and a stairwell behind that, leading up to his apartment. He always has two guys up there though when he is down at the club, so be careful. _

Helena knows she could just kill those guys in question, probably without them even realizing she’s there until it’s too late; she wants to try and not leave any traces though, hoping that Sionis might not realize right away that the gem is gone, and leaving dead people lying around certainly is quite the big trace, so she’ll just have to try to be sneaky.

She knows she can do that, it has been part of her training after all, and by the end, she has made it past all three of her mentors without getting caught; she figures she can deal with two random goons, but still takes a moment to calm her mind and take a few deep, controlled breaths before she heads out.

The thought of Dinah keeping Sionis busy and distracted doesn’t sit well with her, she knows how much Dinah despises the man; it has been the singer’s suggestion though, and when Helena has expressed her doubts, Dinah has reassured her it’s fine, telling her she can deal with it for one evening if it means that she’ll be away from the club and from him for good afterwards.

Helena still feels a bit bad that Dinah has to do this, willingly has to go close to the man who treats her this way, but she tells herself it’s for a good cause; she arrives at the club in the middle of Dinah’s set, as they have agreed upon, choosing a spot near the door to the backstage, Dinah has told her to wait near said door until she is with Sionis, and to slip in quickly then, the man won’t be paying attention to anything else when Dinah is with him. 

She allows her concentration to waver for a bit as Dinah sings, her voice does something to her, makes her feel all warm and tingly inside; for now, all she can do is wait for the set to be over anyway, so she allows herself to focus on Dinah and on her voice, on how content it makes her feel, something she hasn’t felt in quite a while.

Her thoughts stray as Dinah sings, to the previous evening, when they have shaked hands; she’s not one to touch people a lot, except for when fighting them, but even with her lack of knowledge, Helena figures that such a strong sensation isn’t exactly normal, something Dinah’s reaction has confirmed, the woman having been just as startled as Helena herself has been.

The song ends, and Dinah takes a bow, signalling the end of her set as Helena snaps out of her trance-like state; she clears her throat, a bit startled by how fast time has gone by as she has been focused on Dinah, but then, she is aware of their connection, and figures this is just another side effect of this.

She watches how Dinah leaves the stage, keeping her eyes on the door leading backstage afterwards; it doesn’t take long until Dinah steps through said door, dressed in more comfortable clothes now, Helena’s gaze following her as she moves through the club until she reaches Sionis’ table, the sleazy smile the man gives her making Helena’s skin crawl despite the distance between them.

_ Not now _ , she then berates herself as she gets up from her seat and moves towards the backstage door, glancing at Sionis and Dinah every now and then, she can tell that Sionis is fully focused on Dinah and clearly delighted that she is paying such attention to him, and while that makes her feel bad again, she knows it’s a good thing.

She takes a moment to glance left and right, making sure no one is paying any attention to her, then slips through the door marked  _ Backstage _ ; Dinah has told her that she’s the only one there usually, so it should be safe, but still Helena makes sure to move quietly as she searched for the door Dinah has told her about.

Thankfully, the backstage area isn’t that big, and she finds it fairly quickly; it’s locked, which is not a surprise, but Dinah has warned her that it might be, so she has come prepared, pulling a lockpick from her pocket and quickly getting to work on the lock.

Sionis might not want people to randomly wander up to his place when drunks, Helena reflects as the lock opens with a soft  _ click _ , but he clearly isn’t all too concerned about the lockpicking skills of his guests, as the lock hasn’t been any sort of challenge; she takes another look around, just to on the safe side, then steps through the door, quietly pulling it shut behind herself.

There’s a very short hallway behind that door, then the stairs which lead up to Sionis’ apartment; she can’t see anyone on top of said stairs, wondering if the guards Dinah has mentioned are patrolling or if one is just standing out of sight, ready for any intruders, Dinah has told her that there are guards, but she hasn’t known what they actually do up there.

_ One way to find out _ , she tells herself as she soundlessly moves up the stairs; there’s no one in the hallway they lead to, just another door, Helena taking a few moments to listen at said door before she picks that lock, as well, holding her breath when it swings open, but the area behind is empty, as well.

Helena thanks her lucky stars for this, she knows all her sneak skills would have been for nothing if someone had seen her come through that door; she closes it quietly, then soundlessly starts moving into the apartment, she can see what she assumes is the living room from where she is standing, and she remembers what Dinah has told her about the place.

_ The living room is the center _ , Dinah has let her know,  _ the rest is all around, bedroom at the far back. If this gem can do what you said, and is that powerful, he’ll have it in his bedroom, where he can see it first thing in the morning. _

She doesn’t know Sionis well, but she figures Dinah does, and knows what she is talking about; and so, she sneaks towards the main area of the place, only to freeze when she hears voices from her left.

“...to a nice dinner, you know”, she hears one man say, “make her feel like a princess for one evening! You gotta put some work in this dude!”

“Meh”, another man responds, and she slowly sneaks closer, making sure to not make any noise; she carefully peers around the corner, and sees two men sitting at a table, cups in front of them and a plate with various pastries, neither of them looking very alert, even though she presumes those are the guards Dinah has been talking about.

_ Not very good at your job, are you, guys _ , Helena thinks to herself, smirking as she moves past them with no troubles, they are too focused on their conversation; perhaps, she ponders as she keeps making her way towards Sionis’ bedroom, they have had an easy job here for too long, and have grown lazy and complacent, good for her as she easily reaches the bedroom, the men not having an idea she’s here.

And as it turns out, Dinah has been right with her assessment of Sionis; there’s a surprisingly large bed, big enough to easily give four people room, and at the foot end of said bed, a podium stands, the Dragon’s Blood resting on a deep red pillow on it, Helena smirking to herself as it’s truly the first thing Sionis sees every day he opens his eyes.

_ Dinah will have a field day with this _ , she thinks to herself as she checks the podium, making sure it’s not booby trapped,  _ once I tell her how right she was. _

She finds nothing suspicious at the podium, and no security measures, either, wondering how secure Sionis feels here; then, she shrugs that off, going tense as she grabs the gem, expecting an alarm or some sort of trap, but nothing of the sort happens.

Quickly, she pockets the gem, smirking to herself at how well this is going; now, all she has to do is get back out, and she starts sneaking back towards the exit, glad how well all of this has gone and that the first of the gems is in her hands now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for a plan working flawlessly XD


	10. First Step

As Helena walks past Dinah on her way to the exit, she gives her a brief nod, just one short gesture no one who’s not looking for it should have noticed; she leaves the club and heads to her bike without looking back, getting onto the vehicle already just in case they have to make a quick get away, it should all work out fine as she hasn’t been seen by the guards on her way out, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The plan is for Dinah to leave as fast as possible once Helena has left, and Helena feels nervous as now, all she can do is wait; the minutes seem to take forever to tick by, and she fidgets a bit on the bike, wondering how much time she should give the singer before it might be smart to go back and look, just in case Dinah is in trouble.

She checks her watch and decides to give her another ten minutes, all too aware that a lot can happen in that time; as it turns out, there has been nothing to worry about, Dinah rounding the corner four minutes later, and smiling as she finds Helena already on her bike, the taller woman reacting by starting the engine.

“Everything gone well?” Helena asks despite Dinah’s clearly happy expression, the singer nodding at once; she hops onto the bike behind her and puts on the spare helmet Helena has found for her, both of them knowing that right here and now is not the best place to discuss the outcome of their plan.

She needs a moment when Dinah wraps both arms around her, once again blaming their strange connection at how the feeling of the singer so close to her and holding on to her makes her whole body tingle; the last thing they need is a crash now though, and so, she pulls in a slow, controlled breath before she drives, glancing at her rearview mirrors every now and then to make sure nobody is following them.

As Helena drives, she is unaware that Dinah behind her has troubles similar to her own; one look at Helena is enough to tell that she is in good shape, but now, Dinah can actually  _ feel  _ that, her hands resting on the other woman’s stomach as Helena drives, and the firm muscle beneath her palms is doing things to her, she’s glad the helmet is hiding her face and thus her heated cheeks.

_ Get a grip _ , she scolds herself as Helena keeps driving, back to her apartment, Dinah doesn’t like the idea of not going back to her own place, but once Sionis will realize she is not coming back, she’s pretty sure he’ll send people there to look for her; she has packed the most necessary things before their plan has been set in motion, and Helena has reassured her a few times that it’s okay for Dinah to stay with her for the time being, Dinah figuring it’s smart to stay together, at least for as long as they are working on the mission.

As Helena drives, Dinah wonders if she is just as affected by this close contact, and if she is good at hiding it; on the other hand, she can’t see the other woman’s face, Helena might as well be beet-red beneath her helmet and Dinah would never know. 

For a moment, she wishes that her power wasn’t actually in her voice, but a sort of mind reading, then scolds herself and tells herself this is creepy; and as Helena pulls up to her apartment building, Dinah isn’t sure if she should be happy or dismayed, it means she can get some distance between Helena and herself, but it also means she has to stop hugging her.

So, it takes her a bit longer than strictly necessary to let go of the taller woman and to get off the bike; Helena kills the engine once Dinah is standing next to her, then hops off as well and pulls off her helmet, and Dinah is fairly certain she can see her blush even in the dim light of the streetlamps outside.

_ Looks like you’re not the only one on whom this has had an effect _ , she thinks to herself, smiling a bit, glad when Helena smiles back at her after a moment; the taller woman digs out her keys, and together, they make their way up to her apartment, Dinah sitting down on the couch and nodding when Helena asks if she wants a beer.

“And after that, a shower”, she adds as Helena moves towards the kitchen, the place is small enough that Helena can still hear her perfectly fine even without her having to raise her voice, “that creep got quite touchy feely again, jeez. Thank God I don’t have to go back there again.”

“I still feel bad you had to endure that tonight though”, Helena says as she moves to sit next to her, handing her the beer and opening one for herself, Dinah feeling oddly touched at the guilty look the other woman gives her, “I wish we could have come up with something else.”

“It’s fine”, Dinah reassures her, touched by how guilty Helena looks, her chest suddenly feeling oddly tight as she realizes how much Helena cares already, despite how little they actually know each other, and all at once, she finds it hard to speak, having to swallow heavily, Helena clearly picking up on her sudden distress as she sits up straight and looks at her in alarm.

“Dinah?” she says when the singer takes in a few deep breaths, she doesn't have much experience with helping people who are apparently overwhelmed in some way by their thoughts or emotions, but she can’t just sit here and do nothing, “what’s wrong, what is it?”

“...I’m fine”, Dinah manages after a few tense seconds have ticked by, taking in another deep breath, Helena holding on to her beer as she feels the urge to put her hand on Dinah’s back or shoulder, but isn’t quite sure if the touch is welcome, “it’s just… Shit, if I tell you, you’ll think I’m a pathetic loser.”

“I would never”, Helena protests at once; Dinah looks doubtful for a moment, then lets out a small sigh, figuring she might as well say it, and maybe let Helena make an unpleasant decision before they get too attached, skillfully ignoring the fact that she’s feeling quite drawn to the woman already. 

“I just… haven’t had anyone in a long time”, she admits, and now, Helena does reach out and places one hand on her back, the touch making Dinah swallow heavily again as she realizes that lately, the only who has touched her has been Sionis, and sometimes a handsy guest, and neither of those touches have been pleasant, so unlike the tender way Helena’s hand rests on her back, in an attempt to give comfort and not in the sleazy, lustful way Sionis has touched her, “ever since my mom died I just… drew back from people. I didn’t want anyone to get close, because if no one’s close, then I can’t lose anyone and it can’t hurt. You know?”

Helena nods at once, and Dinah can’t hide her look of surprise, not having expected this quick agreement; and clearly, Helena is aware of her surprise, giving her a wry smile while she, to Dinah’s slight dismay, pulls her hand back and takes a sip of her beer, winning some time before she speaks up again.

“I know what you mean”, she lets the singer know, “I… a while ago, I went to Sicily, to live with… relatives. For the first six months, they had a really hard time getting me to work with them, I was angry and sad and… didn’t want to be there.”

This makes Dinah feel curious what Helena exactly is talking about, why she has gone to Sicily and why she has been angry and sad; she doesn’t want to be pushy or nosy though, and so she doesn’t ask, Helena appearing deep in thought now as she takes another sip of her drink, perhaps pondering if she should tell her, or maybe thinking back to her time in Sicily, or possibly both.

“You should know”, she then suddenly says, Dinah feeling quite trusted and special at this, quick to reassure Helena she doesn’t have to tell her though if it’s too painful; Helena just shakes her head, then sighs, the wry smile she gives the singer afterwards making Dinah’s heart clench up.

“You should know”, Helena repeats, toying with her bottle now, “if we will do this together, then you deserve to know.”

She takes in a deep breath, and now it’s Dinah’s turn to place her hand on the other woman’s back in an attempt to give her some comfort; Helena needs a few more moments, Dinah can tell, and so she doesn’t say anything, just looks at her, her mouth dropping open though when Helena finally does continue.

“I’m Helena Bertinelli”, the taller woman quietly tells her, and as if that name wasn’t enough, she has one more thing to add, “and I’m dragonborn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *plays suspenseful music*


	11. Lore

“Okay”, Dinah says after a moment, “I know who the Bertinellis are… were, I’m sorry, I think there’s not a single person in Gotham who doesn’t. And I also believe there is not a single person who knows you’re alive.”

“That was the point”, Helena tells her with a wry smile, it has been fifteen years, but it’s still not easy to talk about it, “and not just because that makes me the last Bertinelli.”

“I don’t know what the other thing means”, Dinah admits, momentarily wondering if she should know, but Helena doesn’t look upset or annoyed by this, so she figures it’s okay, “dragonborn, you said?”

“Yes”, Helena confirms, “it’s where what I can do comes from, that thing you saw me do with my voice? As far as we know, there’s one in each generation, the men in Sicily, they knew a lot more about it than I did. They taught me all the things I can do, but there might be more out there, shouts we haven’t discovered yet. Um, a shout is the words I use, like when I breathed fire. That’s what they are called.”

“Okay”, Dinah says again, quite impressed by this, and finding herself wondering what other things Helena can do with her voice, but figuring that now is not a good moment to ask, “so you are dragonborn, and Sionis wants to bring back the dragons, let me guess, you’re the only one who can stop him?”

“No”, Helena responds, to her relief, she certainly doesn’t want to worry about Helena not being around for whatever reason, but this is Gotham, and it’s a dangerous city, “unless he does manage to bring the dragons back, then I might be the only one able to take them down. Not that he’ll have an easy time doing so, because we got this.”

With that, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out the gem, holding it up so Dinah can see it, too; it looks fairly unremarkable, she has to admit, it’s not even that big, but she knows what it can do, and she’s glad they have it now and Sionis doesn’t.

“It doesn’t even look that spectacular”, Dinah comments, making Helena nod, “but I’ve seen that crazy fire breathing shit you did with your voice, so who knows what this little gem thing can do. I’m just glad that all went fine.”

Helena nods again, then comes to her feet, Dinah watching how she moves to the duffel bag next to her bag; she opens it and pulls out a small box made of dark metal, opening it and carefully placing the gem inside.

For a few moments, she then just looks at it, the harmless little red thing lying there; then, Dinah can practically see how she steels herself against whatever it is she is thinking or feeling, momentarily clenching her jaw before she snaps the box shut and the gem vanishes from view.

“Alright”, she then says, straightening up again and moving to sit back down next to Dinah, “now we got one. There’s three more.”

“Tell me about them”, Dinah says, in an attempt to distract Helena from possible dark thoughts her brief recollection of her past and of what has happened to her family might have brought up; Helena takes a moment to get more comfortable and for a sip of her drink, then starts talking, and as she speaks, Dinah once more finds herself mesmerized by the other woman’s voice, reminded of the strange connection they have.

“There’s three more”, she says once more, “all gems, like the one we got tonight. The Magma Stone, the Firebird’s Beak and the Diamond from the Ashes. All four of those together combined with the ritual will wake the dragons, my mentors in Sicily had a contact to find the Dragon’s Blood, but that was all they knew. So basically, I have no idea how to find the other ones, I did some research but…”

“We’ll figure it out”, Dinah promises her at once, earning a small smile in response, “well, I mean… if you want me along for that ride. I’m down for it if it’s okay with you, too.”

“Sure”, Helena says at once, earning a relieved smile from the singer, “I… Well, I thought I would have to do that alone, and I didn’t really… mind. I’ve had my mentors around me but I still often felt lonely but now…”

“Now you don’t have to do that alone anymore”, Dinah finishes for her, making Helena smile again, “you keep Sionis and his goons away from me, and I’ll help you with finding those gems.”

“Sounds good to me”, Helena says at once, Dinah now smiling in response, “and it can’t hurt to have two people with powers for this. Depending on where those gems are, it might get dangerous.”

“Yeah, I don’t suppose we can just find them on eBay or something”, Dinah comments, glad when Helena lets out a small snort, “but like you said, we both got powers. We can deal with it.”

Helena nods, truly glad that she doesn’t need to do that alone; suddenly daring, even though she remembers the strong reaction the last time Dinah and she have touched skin to skin, she reaches out and grasps the singer’s hand, she’s normally not one to touch people when she’s not fighting them, but it feels right with Dinah, it feels good, and judging from the other woman smiles again as Helena’s fingers curl around hers, she feels the same way.

“Alright”, Helena says after just sitting there for a few moments and enjoying it to hold Dinah’s hand, “we better get some rest now, we got work to do tomorrow. It’s probably gonna be just boring research, unless we find something.”

Dinah nods her agreement to that and finishes her beer, Helena a bit apologetic when she tells her she only has a one person bed, but offering the couch to her; they quickly decide that they will take turns, and that Helena will get the bed for that night, Dinah retreating to the bathroom for a quick shower afterwards while Helena finds a spare pillow and blanket for her to use.

By the time Dinah gets done in the bathroom, Helena has changed into her sleepwear, ready to go to bed; they wish each other a good night, then Dinah gets comfortable on the couch, glad that it at least is big enough to let her lie outstretched, she has slept in worse places and figures she’d be okay even if she’d sleep her every night, something Helena has refused to discuss though, insisting she’ll sleep on the couch in the next night.

As she lies there in the dark, Dinah is a bit amazed at how fast all of this has happened, just two days ago, she has been so certain that she’d be stuck working for Sionis for God knew how long, with no one she can trust enough to help her out; and here she is now, on some sort of quest for mysterious gems with a woman she just has met, and even though that is weird, it feels good and right, and she doubts she could have walked away if she had wanted to, not with this strange connection between Helena and herself.

She thinks back to how Helena has taken her hand, and almost automatically smiles to herself at the memory of Helena’s fingers, calloused but still gentle, holding on to hers; perhaps, she ponders as she snuggles deeper into the blanket, their connection will lead to more than just working together, it might be way too early to think about this, but she can’t quite stop herself, and she’s still smiling as she drifts off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah Dinah, who knows where it might lead... XD


	12. Research

“Okay”, Dinah says as they have breakfast in the next morning, consisting of coffee and toast with butter and jam, Helena having been a bit apologetic when she has told Dinah she doesn’t have much more than that and Dinah reassuring her it’s okay, “this has to be the best goddamn coffee I’ve ever had. You have to tell me where you got that.”

“Sicily”, Helena tells her with a small grimace, and Dinah groans, “one of my mentors insisted I bring coffee, telling me that the coffee here has been shit the last time he’s been here and he doubts it has gotten better since then.”

“Well, compared to this, I have to say he’s right”, Dinah says with a sigh, taking a small sip of her coffee now as she realizes there can’t easily be bought more, a thought hitting her a moment later though which makes her perk up, “but hey, you can just call them and ask them to send more, no?”

“No”, Helena lets her now, and her face falls, “they don’t have phones there. Or internet. Or any modern form of communication. They’re very… old fashioned.”

“Okay, so, let me get this straight”, Dinah says, frowning now, the delicious coffee for the moment forgotten, “these guys take you in after… what happened, they train you and teach you about this dragonborn thing, and then they just send you from Sicily to Gotham, one of the nastiest cities in the US, if not the world, with no way to contact them? What if you need help? Or what if you fail and need to warn them? Or succeed and want to tell them?”

“Well, if I fail, a warning won’t do any good”, Helena tells her, and she raises an eyebrow at the finality of  _ that  _ statement, “and if I succeed, I guess I’ll write them a letter? As for helping, there’s not much they can do over there in Sicily so…”

“Wow”, Dinah says, still finding this quite harsh, sending Helena here with no way to contact them, “I don’t know those guys but… that sounds a bit… callous? Just sending you here all on your own?”

Helena shrugs, she never has thought about it, but she has been trained to do everything on her own, having been taught that’s dangerous to rely on others and that she can only fully trust herself; she never has been told that she might feel such a connection to someone though, and while she is aware of what she has been taught about working alone, she also knows what she has been taught about fate and destiny, figuring that the connection to Dinah is more important than the lone wolf mentality her mentors had tried to raise her with.

“They’re three kinda old guys”, she then says, as if that would explain it all, “they wouldn’t have been much help even if they had come here with me. And hey, turns out I don’t have to do it alone anyway, but got very capable help.”

Dinah smiles at that, she’s not sure she’s that capable, after all, all she has done so far is give a tiny demonstration of her power - which can do more than what she has shown Helena, but it comes with a toll on her - and distract Sionis, who had been all too willing to get distracted by her; on the other hand, this teamwork has made it fairly easy for Helena to get the first gem, and she figures that she truly has done a good job then. 

“So”, she says, Helena taking a sip of her coffee as she waits for Dinah to go on, “research it is. Any idea which one to start with?”

“No”, Helena sighs, “I started the other day, but didn’t get far, mostly because I’m not very skilled about using the internet. Hey, are you by chance good at that?”

“I guess so”, Dinah says with a little shrug, figuring that she’s probably better at it than Helena, considering what the woman just has revealed about the technical equipment of her mentors, “I can give it a try, at least? You got anything for that here or we’re going to the library?”

“I got a laptop”, Helena tells her, feeling proud, “we can do it together? Then maybe I’ll get better at it, too.”

Dinah nods, figuring it can’t hurt, and once they have finished breakfast, Helena gets said laptop and they get to work; Helena mostly sits there and watches as Dinah types and clicks and works, a bit lost at how fast the singer is working, but not letting this bother her, as long as it gets them results.

And it seems as if Dinah finds something, letting out a “hmmm” as she hops from one website to the next; Helena has lost track of what she is doing and how she got to the page she is on right now a while ago, and so, she blinks when Dinah clicks another link and suddenly, a picture of the Firebird’s Beak, bright orange and with a shape which indicates where its name has come from.

“Wow”, Helena lets out, giving Dinah an impressed look and making her smile, “you found that fast, that would have taken me forever.”

“Yeah, but it’s not good news”, Dinah tells her, both of them leaning closer to peer at the screen, Dinah taking note of how Helena’s arm brushes hers in the process before she reminds herself to pay attention, “this is the most recent article I could find, and it says that gem was stolen from Gotham Natural History Museum.”

“Of course it was”, Helena replies with a roll of her eye, Dinah snorting at her deadpan tone despite their serious topic, “but I guess it wasn’t Sionis, or it would have been right there on display with the other one.”

“Yeah, he would have had them on display”, Dinah has to agree, making a face, “let’s see if this article says anything about possible suspects, maybe there’s something useful in here.”

She quickly reads the rest of the article, grimacing again when she gets to the part where they do talk about suspects; and clearly, Helena has not been prepared well by her mentors for Gotham’s oddities, as she just looks at Dinah questioningly, clearly not getting why what the article says isn’t exactly good news for them. 

“The Joker?” Helena then says, before Dinah has the chance to point it out, “who’s that? Sounds ridiculous.”

“Possibly”, Dinah has to agree with that, “and he probably thinks he’s hilarious, but he’s one of Gotham’s biggest, most notorious criminals. The good thing is, he probably just liked the gem’s name and that’s why he stole it and not because he knows what it can do.”

On the other hand, she ponders, awakening dragons might be the exact thing which might appeal to the Joker, to cause random chaos; then, she shrugs that off, telling herself it doesn’t matter, after all, Helena and she have one of the gems, and as long as they have even just one, the ritual can’t happen.

“So how do we get it back”, Helena wants to know, “another burglary? You know where he lives?”

“No”, Dinah replies with a small laugh, making a mental note to teach Helena a thing or two about the darker side of Gotham, before another idea comes to her, “but I know someone who does, his girl, she came to Sionis’ club all the time. Harley Quinn, crazy and a criminal too, but not quite as insane as her boyfriend.”

“Let’s go through her then”, Helena decides at once, making Dinah nod, “wait at the club and see if she shows up? Not inside of course, somewhere outside where Sionis won’t see us.”

Dinah nods to that, she knows a few good spots near the club where they can hide and keep an eye on the entrance and the back door, glad that it’s the two of them; Helena points out they will need some way to communicate if they’re gonna split up, and once a rough plan has been made, they head out to get equipment for that, both of them feeling confident that they will find Harley and that soon, the second gem will be in their possession.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good thing Dinah is good at research xD


	13. Harley

Dinah doesn’t want to risk being seen by Sionis or Zsasz, so she gets a spot from where she can keep her eyes on the club’s back entrance; she has shown Helena a few photos of Harley so the taller woman would actually know whom to look for, and now, Helena is hidden somewhere near the club’s main entrance, looking out for the woman while Dinah does the same from her hiding place.

“Anything?” Dinah asks through the small microphone clipped to her collar, Helena’s voice coming through the corresponding earpiece a moment later, a bit tinny as they hadn’t had much time to find the best equipment and had gotten the first set which works for their needs.

“Nothing yet”, Helena lets her know, “bunch of people coming in and out, but nobody who looks like that lady you showed me.”

“Alright”, Dinah gives back, holding back a sigh as she gets as comfortable as it is possible in this somewhat dirty side alley; she logically knows that she can’t expect Harley to pop out of the door she can see on the other side of the street any moment, but she still feels bored, hoping she won’t end up falling asleep and missing the woman in case she does use that exit.

Not wanting to sit down on the very unclean ground, Dinah leans against the wall instead, crossing her arms over her chest as she keeps her eyes on the door; the minutes seem to take forever to tick by, but she tells herself she can do this, Helena is counting on her and she doesn’t want to let her down.

_ Helena _ , she thinks with a fond smile curling her lips,  _ she helped you get away from Sionis, so that is the least you can do. Not to mention the whole saving-the-world stuff. And she’s easy on the eyes, too. _

She’s honest enough with herself to admit that she finds Helena quite attractive, and she wonders if that is caused by the strange connection between them or if it would have happened without that, as well; and she wonders if Helena feels similar, if the taller woman feels just as drawn to her.

She keeps herself entertained with thoughts about this, until the door in her view opens and she sees Harley Quinn stagger outside; and she’s not alone, Dinah quickly realizes, a guy moving outside with her, the singer frowning when he wraps his arms around Harley and pushes her up against the wall, she can tell even from this distance that the woman is very drunk and possibly very not aware of what is going on around her.

“She came out through the side door”, Dinah quickly speaks into her microphone, “side exit, with some guy.”

“Coming”, Helena responds, and Dinah gets moving, just as a van pulls into the alley from the other end; she’s close enough to hear how the guy who’d come out with Harley comments on how she’s not the Joker’s girl anymore when the driver asks about it, her blood boiling when they open the van’s back doors and move to get the woman into it.

“Hey!” she calls out, not even considering to wait for Helena to show up, knowing she can take two guys on her own, “you got room for one more?”

One of them turns, and she kicks him in the stomach, too fast for him to react and hard enough to knock the air out of him; the other one lets go of Harley, and she flails to hold on to the van as she reassures Dinah in a very slurred voice that she’s got this.

“Yeah, I can see that”, Dinah sarcastically snipes back as she kicks the other guy; Harley squints at her, then tries to straighten up, almost falling again, but for the moment, Dinah can’t try to help her out, as both guys are still on their feet, and she tries hard to keep her eyes on both of them as they circle her.

“You’re the singing lady!” Harley chooses this moment to declare, “Roman was pissed because you weren’t here tonight! But you are here now!”

A very audible and very unwelcome  _ click _ from Dinah’s right distracts her from Harley and her babbling, she recognizes the sound of a knife being flipped open when she hears it; she turns away from the drunk woman and moves to kick knife guy again before he can do more than glare at her, landing another kick before he can recover, hard enough to slam him back and into the van.

He hasn’t dropped the knife, Dinah notes, but before she can do anything about that, the other guy recovers and gets back into the fight; he tries to make a grab for her, but she sees it coming and swiftly steps back, trying to get some distance between the two guys and herself, figuring that her first priority still should be getting the knife away from the one who has it.

From the corner of her eye, she sees movement, figuring it’s either Harley trying to get up again or Helena coming to join the fun, she certainly hopes it’s not a third guy, but she doesn’t dare look; as it turns out though, it’s Helena, the guys just having a second to realize she’s approaching fast before she’s upon them and punches one of them, straight in the face, hard enough to send him reeling back.

“Other guy has a knife”, Dinah is quick to warn her, but said guy apparently still is intent of taking her out and barely acknowledges Helena is there; he raises said knife as if to reassure her he still has it, then advances, only to have Dinah duck his somewhat clumsy swipe with his weapon, a yelp escaping him when she then uses this new position to swipe his legs out from underneath him with a fast kick.

He hits the ground hard, and this time, he does let go of the knife; Dinah is fast to kick it away, just as Helena downs the other one, Harley sitting on the ground at this point and cackling, apparently very amused by all of this, only laughing harder when knife guy rolls over in an attempt to come to his feet again, Dinah kicking him in the stomach the moment he is up on his hands and knees, then into the back when he slumps back down.

“You okay?” Helena asks, almost off-handedly smacking the other guy again when it looks as if he might try to roll over, taking him out of the fight for good, too; Dinah nods, then moves to help Harley up, rolling her eyes at how Harley keeps cackling as she stares at Helena.

“Hey Beyonce”, she then says, Helena looking confused, then wondering if perhaps, this is some sort of stage name for Dinah even though she hasn’t seen it anywhere on the club’s website, “who’s your hot friend?”

“Oh, shut up”, Dinah tells her, annoyed, regretting it now that she has suggested Harley as possible lead to the second gem to Helena; on the other hand, they still have no other leads, so she figures they will have to deal with Harley for now, at least until they’d get the second gem from the Joker.

“Why did she call you Beyonce”, Helena asks as she moves to help Dinah with getting Harley to her feet; Dinah blinks, then just tells her she’ll explain later, Helena shrugging before she nods, and together, they get Harley to Dinah’s car and drive back to Helena’s place, figuring that they can tell Harley what this is about once she has slept and is not drunk anymore, both of them hoping that they fact they’ve helped her out will make her willing to do the same for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter Harley. :D


	14. Bedsharing

Only once they actually arrive at Helena’s place, Dinah realizes there’s a slight problem with her plan to have Harley sleep the alcohol off there.

“Oh”, she lets out as Helena lowers Harley onto the couch, “...you don’t happen to have a second couch, right. Or, I dunno, a beanbag?”

“No”, Helena tells her, looking at the by now fast asleep Harley, and Dinah wonders if she does so just so she won’t have to look at her, “but, um, you can have the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor, it’s fine.”

“No, come on”, Dinah protests at once, the thought of sharing the bed with Helena makes her tingle all over, and not exactly in the bad way, and she’s pretty sure Helena isn’t blushing slightly now because she feels that way, “I’m not gonna kick you out of your bed. Either we share or I sleep on the floor.”

“It’s a bit narrow to share”, Helena points out, it is a one person bed, but Dinah figures it will be okay for one night, “but I don’t want you to sleep on the floor, either, and you obviously won’t let me do that so…”

“Nope, no way I let you do that”, Dinah tells her, earning a wry smirk in response, “so let’s shower and then go to sleep, you don’t snore, do you?”

“I don’t think so”, Helena lets her know, making her smile before she heads to the bathroom; once she is done in there, Helena is the next to shower, feeling nervous as she dries off afterwards, she can’t remember the last time she has shared a bed with someone, and she’s never had done so with someone she’s actually attracted to.

_ Come on, you can do this _ , she tells herself as she takes in a few deep breaths, then brushes her teeth, the routine helping her to calm her mind; it’s decidedly less calm again when she returns to the bedroom once she is done in the bathroom and Dinah is already in her bed, the blanket pulled up to her chin.

“I hope you’re not a blanket hogger”, Helena makes herself say, trying to sound light and carefree, and not as if her heart is hammering up to her throat; Dinah shakes her head and reassures her she is not, then lifts the blanket up so Helena can actually get beneath it.

With the bed just being meant for one person, they are  _ very _ close together, Helena can feel the warmth of Dinah’s body as she lies there; she’s fairly certain she won’t get any sleep that night, and has to focus heavily on her breathing, just so it will remain calm and slow, her heart beating so fast that she wonders if Dinah can actually hear it.

_ Does she feel like that, too?  _ Helena ponders as she feels Dinah move a bit next to her, perhaps to get more comfortable; if Dinah does feel strange about this, she does a very good job at hiding it, appearing quite comfortable and relaxed, her breathing slowing down fairly quickly until Helena is quite sure Dinah is fast asleep.

Perhaps, she ponders, she can go to sleep now too, if Dinah can fall asleep so quickly, clearly this bed sharing thing is perfectly fine and nothing to worry about; and just as she almost manages to convince herself of this, Dinah rolls over in her sleep and her arm flops over Helena’s stomach as her head ends up snuggled against her shoulder.

This, Helena realizes as she lies there with her eyes wide open now, is going to be a long night.

* * *

Apparently, Helena has fallen asleep at some point, because she wakes up fairly early in the next morning; she’s flat on her back, so the first thing which registers when she opens her eyes is the ceiling above her.

The second thing is that fact that Dinah not only is still snuggled up to her, but has moved even closer to her during the night, and immediately, Helena is wide awake. 

She lies perfectly still as she takes it all in, not used at all to someone so close to her; Dinah’s arm is still, or maybe again, draped across her stomach, and the singer’s head rests on her shoulder, her legs entangled in a way with Helena’s which make it practically impossible for her to get up without waking Dinah, too. 

So, she just remains where she is, and as she lies there, she realizes that this, while making her feel strange, feels nice, too; it’s nice to have Dinah so close to her, to feel the warmth of her body next to and across hers, the only people she has been close to the past fifteen years have been her mentors and those have never been big on physical contact, except for when they taught her how to fight.

Dinah stirs, tearing her out of her thoughts, and Helena looks at her just as her eyes open; and clearly, Dinah is not nearly as perturbed by their position as Helena has been when she has woken up, smiling at her before she, to Helena’s slight dismay, disentangled herself, then sits up and stretches, Helena very pointedly not looking at the strip of skin this exposes when her shirt rides up.

“Good morning”, Dinah says once she has stretched sufficiently, which has taken quite longer than Helena would have thought reasonable, “slept well? Sorry for using you as a pillow.”

“Um, yeah, and that’s okay”, Helena reassures her, glad that she has managed to keep her voice steady for those few words, but not quite sure she’d be able to pull that off again, if she had to say more; so she says nothing, Dinah giving her another smile as she gets out of bed, then stretched again, exposing some stomach this time, a variation from the back she has shown Helena earlier.

Helena is fairly certain she’s looked away fast enough, but when she does look at Dinah again, the singer is smirking, so perhaps, she wasn’t fast enough; she clears her throat, but thankfully, Dinah doesn’t say anything about possibly catching her looking, instead nods towards the living room, from where quite distinctive snoring still can be heard.

“What do you say”, she says, smirking a bit still, and Helena wonders if that is because of what she is saying, or because she has caught her looking, “should we wake up Harley and ask her to help? She sort of owes us now anyway, we did help her out yesterday.”

“Yeah, sure”, Helena agrees, getting out of bed, fairly certain that Dinah is checking her out as well when she does so, aware that the sleeveless shirt she sleeps with gives quite the good view of her arms; like Dinah, she decides to say nothing though, just heads to the living room with the singer in tow, hoping that Harley will truly be able to help them out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I like the bedsharing trope? XD


	15. Joker

“I can’t help you”, Harley declares once Helena and Dinah not only have shaken her awake, but have gotten some strong coffee into her too; Dinah has been the one to explain what they need help with, and Harley has been nodding and letting out “mmm” sounds, only to make this bold statement now, smiling innocently as Helena and Dinah stare at her.

“What”, Dinah finally manages to speak up, Helena still looking quite stunned by this, “what do you mean, you can’t help us?! It’s at your boyfriend’s fucking house! You don’t want him to bring back dragons, do you.”

“Well, no”, Harley lets them know, a small relief, at least, “even I know that this is a fucking stupid idea. And I’m insane. But he’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

_ “What?” _ Dinah says again, with more force this time, apparently that is big news, Helena thinks to herself, “what the fuck!”

“Why do you think those goons the other night had the balls to try and grab me”, Harley says conversationally, peering into her empty coffee cup as if it might have magically refilled in the last two minutes, “they never would have dared if I was still with him. We are aaaall broken up. Mutually, I might add.”

“Oh my God, he dumped your ass”, Dinah declares, and Helena blinks while Harley gasps theatrically, then shakes her head vigorously, “he totally did! Shit, there goes our plan.”

“If your plan hinged on  _ get Harley Quinn to help _ , it was a shit plan anyway”, Harley says, unimpressed when both women glare at her, “what, you think if I was still with him I would have helped you? And it was mutual, so there. Hey, can I have more of that coffee, that is really good.”

“Whatever”, Dinah sighs, dismayed, she has been so sure that Harley would be helpful and now she feels as if she has let Helena down; Helena herself doesn’t seem too bothered by it though, just shrugging, speaking up at the questioning look Dinah shoots her.

“It doesn’t matter”, Helena lets them know, Dinah frowning now as she isn’t sure where this will go, “we don’t need much help. Just his address, then I can go there and steal it. Oh, and maybe where he hid it.”

“And you think you can just waltz in there and take it?” Harley wants to know, raising her eyebrows, Dinah looking a bit worried too, until she remembers that Helena has breathed fire not too long ago and has proven she is capable at hand to hand combat, too, figuring she’ll be fine, even if she does go up against a crimelord like the Joker, “he’s got goons, woman, they’ll kick your ass. And then probably kill you, unless he decides to have some fun with you first. His  _ fun _ involves torture and ouchies, you know, not balloons and puppies.”

“I can take care of myself”, Helena lets her know, Harley raising her brows again in response, clearly not believing her, “just tell me where he lives and where he keeps the stone, and leave the rest to me.”

“Fine, but I’m coming”, Harley tells her after considering this for a few moments, Dinah frowning at that, “and I want more of that coffee. You hand that over and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Fine”, Helena says at once, then goes to make more coffee; Dinah isn’t sure this is a good idea, but doesn’t protest, glaring at Harley instead when she notices the woman look quite unabashedly at Helena’s butt as the taller woman’s back is turned.

She better goes along, too, she decides then and there, if only to make sure Helena really will be okay.

* * *

Helena tells Dinah and Harley to wait at a safe distance, and Dinah agrees to that, Harley nodding as well, they both know how dangerous the Joker can be; and even though she normally doesn’t go for the mask thing, Helena now does pull a woollen black one over her head, with crudely cut holes at the eyes and mouth, Harley having made it very clear to her that she does not want her ex to see her face.

Harley and Dinah watch from the relative safety of Dinah’s car how Helena makes her way to the door, glancing around before she starts working on it with a lockpick; and the moment she has slipped into the house, Harley hops out of the car, ignoring the startled “Harley!” Dinah lets out.

“Harley!” Dinah hisses as she gets out of the car as well, hurrying after Harley as the woman moves to one of the windows, “what the fuck are you doing! We said we’d wait in the car!”

“Yup but that is boring”, Harley tells her, at least keeping her voice down, “and damn, Puddin is home. Look at the asshole, lounging there in his fucking chair, I hope she kicks his ass.”

“Shhh”, Dinah reprimands her, Harley has been talking in a low tone, but they are fairly close to the window and she doesn’t want to risk discovery; Harley has told Helena and her that the Joker keeps his most valuable stolen goods in a floor safe in his living room, and of course that is exactly where the man is, Dinah feeling worried now as she knows that Helena is capable of taking care of herself, but she also knows how insane and dangerous this man is.

Apparently, something catches his attention, as he sits up straight in the chair, and frowns; and a moment later, a man comes staggering into the room, blood streaming down his face, and he collapses just as the Joker leaps to his feet, clearly startled.

A moment later, Helena steps into the room, and Dinah is impressed by how intimidating she looks, with the mask covering her head and her clenched fists; the Joker doesn’t let this slow him down though, his teeth showing in a crazy smile as he reaches into his jacket, and Dinah can feel Harley go tense next to her, whatever her ex is going to pull out certainly won’t be good for Helena.

_ “Fus Ro Dah!”  _ The shout Helena lets out has  _ force _ , Dinah can tell even outside the house, the windows shatter so Harley and she both have to duck quickly to avoid being hit by shards of glass; and the Joker actually flies through the room, until he hits the wall and goes down, motionless on the ground, Dinah taking note of how Harley looks slightly dazed, as if she’s taken a hit as well.

Not bothering with another glance at the unconscious man, Helena strides to the chair he’d been using and kicks it over; she moves the carpet beneath it aside next, and the safe is exposed, Harley making a face as she watches how Helena tries the combination she has given her and nothing happens.

“Damn”, she whispers, Dinah looking at her, “he must have changed it after he kicked… after we broke up.”   


“Helena will know what to do”, Dinah tells her, she’s not sure Helena actually knows how to break a safe open, but as it is, the taller woman has her ways, muttering something at the dark steel, both Harley and Dinah gasping when a flow of ice streams out with her breath and onto the safe moments later.

She waits a few seconds, then punches the safe, and the metal breaks beneath her fist easily, brittle like glass; Dinah gasps and Harley lets out an “oooh”, turning to look at Dinah afterwards while Helena finds the gem and retrieves it from the other items in the safe.

“Say, Dinah”, Harley says, Dinah glancing at her, going wide-eyed again at what the woman says next, “you don’t happen to know if she’s single, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooo, Fus Ro Dah!  
> Also, tsk tsk Harley.


	16. Halfway There

“Back off”, Dinah hisses at Harley, the woman blinking at her, then slowly starting to grin while Helena vanishes from the living room, presumably on her way out of the house, “she’s… not.”

“Oh but does she know that too?” Harley innocently asks, and for a moment, Dinah feels like screaming at her, “or is that just wishful thinking on your part? This is not first come, first serve, you know.”

“Shut up”, Dinah groans, Harley snickering in response; thankfully, she falls silent just as Helena steps out of the house, the tall woman frowning when she spots Dinah and Harley, moving over to them quickly, Dinah momentarily distracted from her ire at Harley when Helena gives them both an unhappy look.

“What happened to waiting in the car”, she then demands to know, Harley just shrugging while Dinah looks guilty, “that was dangerous, you could have gotten hurt! Are you okay?”

“My ears are ringing”, Harley solemnly tells her, “and my heart beats fast, both because of you. You want to grab dinner or something?”

“I, what?” Helena says, blinking, taking note of how Dinah glares at Harley - before she grabs Helena’s arm and shakes her head, Helena only feeling more confused when Harley pouts.

“No”, Dinah says empathically, giving Harley another glare while Helena just stands there and lets the singer hold on to her arm, thinking to herself that this does feel nice, “no dinner. We, uhm, we gotta get the stone to a safe place. Now!”

“Yeah”, Helena agrees at once, that is something she can make sense of, even though Dinah keeps on holding to her arm as they walk back to the car; she’s driving, and she’s glad when Helena gets into the passenger seat, not wanting to imagine which sort of ideas Harley might have gotten, had she ended up in the back together with Helena.

“So, Harley”, Dinah says, and her voice somehow sounds sweet and sharp at the same time, a feat which only confuses Helena further, “where should I drop you off?”

Harley looks as if she might just not answer for a moment, then Dinah gives her another glare, and she clears her throat before she rattles off an address not far away; Dinah is glad as this will get her out of the car faster, feeling relieved when they arrive at the address and Harley hops out of the car without trying to make another pass at Helena.

“Man, that lady is weird as fuck”, she claims as she drived off, seeing Harley skip away in the rearview mirror; to her amusement, Helena immediately says “oh God, yes”, making her laugh with her next words.

“I thought it’s just me”, Helena tells her, shaking her head to herself, “I haven’t had much contact with people who were not my mentors in Sicily? So I wasn’t sure. But if you say that…”

“Trust me, she is”, Dinah reassures her, and Helena nods, leaning back into the seat, “but at least we got the second stone. So, we’re halfway there!”

“We are”, Helena says with a nod of her own, smiling a bit as she pulls the Firebeard’s Beak from her pocket and holds it up, Dinah briefly glancing at it before she focuses on the road again, “and you are okay, right? Or do you have ringing ears and a fast beating heart like Harley?”

“I’m good”, Dinah reassures her, and for a moment, Helena looks surprised, doesn’t say anything though; she pockets the stone instead though, and remains quiet until they arrive at the apartment and the Firebird’s Beak has been put in the box along with the Dragon’s Blood, Helena feeling relieved at seeing them both there, the fact that they have two of four now will make it harder for Sionis to pull off his plan, and that in turn makes her feel better about this whole situation.

“You know”, she starts once she has put the stones away again in their hiding place, and moves to join Dinah in the living room, sitting down on the couch next to her, “I kinda feel bad for Harley, she must be hungry.”

“Hungry?” Dinah repeats, blinking, wondering where this is coming from now; Helena shrugs, and when she replies, all Dinah wants to do is grab her and squeeze her, for how adorably unaware she is.

“Cause she wanted dinner?” Helena says, “and we said no. So she must be hungry now, unless she went to dinner alone.”

“Oh Helena honey, no”, Dinah says before she can stop herself, and now Helena looks confused again, “she’s certainly not hungry. Well, not for food anyway. She wanted to get dinner with you cause she’s into you.”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, and its her turn to blink now as she clearly hasn’t expected that, “okay? But… why?”

“What do you mean, why”, Dinah asks in response, raising her brows, “look at you, you’re attractive, you got that tall dark and mysterious thing going on, and you can knock people through the room with your voice. There’s people who are into stuff like that.”

“Okay”, Helena says again, frowning now as if she can’t quite believe it, and Dinah wonders if this is the first time someone actually has shown interest in her like that, an idea doesn’t seem unlikely, considering Helena has been living with three apparently old guys in Sicily for quite a while; and all at once, she wants to reassure Helena that this is true, giving her another smile as she reaches out and places her hand on the taller woman’s arm.

“Believe me”, she says, noticing how Helena swallows heavily when she rubs her arm a little bit, and her own heart skips an excited beat as she is all at once quite sure where this is going to go, “and not just Harley, either.”

Helena seems incapable of saying anything, a stark contrast to how powerful her voice had been not even an hour ago; she just looks back at Dinah, but she appears nervous in a good way now, and licks her lips, just for a second, but Dinah still notices.

“Yeah”, she says, if only so they won’t just sit there and stare at each other, “I can promise you that, because I know for sure. I know very well what I’m talking about, because I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now.”

And with that, she leans in, and Helena moves a second later to meet her halfway; she feels more than hears how Helena pulls in a sharp breath when their lips connect, and she can’t blame her, because she feels the same surge of energy she has felt when they touched each other’s hands for the first time, barely able to hold back a yelp at how unexpected and strong the feeling is.

“Okay, wow”, she manages after the kiss, “that… has never happened to me before. And I have kissed a few people.”

“I haven’t”, Helena freely tells her, making her smile a bit again, “but I wouldn't mind kissing you some more. Can I?”

“As much as you want”, Dinah reassures her, and Helena smiles - before she moves to kiss her again, and while the strong feeling is still there, it’s lessened a bit, Dinah smiling into the kiss as she wraps both arms around the taller woman, amazed and happy at how  _ right _ all of this feels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, smoochies :D


	17. Close

Now that they have kissed, Helena is much less troubled when Dinah asks if she wants to share the bed again; she makes a mental note to look into a bigger one once this is over, it’s nice for now, but she figures in the long run, the narrow bed will get more tedious than pleasant, and she’s pretty sure Dinah agrees.

For the moment though, she’s happy to share the bed with Dinah again, and clearly, the singer feels similar, as she immediately snuggles up to her the moment they have both laid down; for a second, Helena is a bit nervous, not quite sure if she is prepared to do more than snuggle, but apparently, Dinah has no plans to do more than that, letting out a content sigh as she lies cuddled up to the taller woman.

“This feels nice”, she then says, after they just have snuggled in silence for a while, Helena nodding until she realizes Dinah can’t see that, with how her head is resting on her shoulder, so she lets out a vaguely agreeing noise, Dinah squeezing her around the middle a bit before she moves her head to press a tender kiss to her jawline, sounding thoughtful when she goes on a moment later.

“It’s been quite a while since I had… this, you know”, she says, and now she’s glad about the darkness in the room as it means Helena can’t see her face, “someone… so close to me. I forgot how… nice that can be.”

Helena again lets out an agreeing noise, she’s not the best when it comes to reading such situations, but she can tell Dinah has more to say; and so, she says nothing else, just holds the singer close, until Dinah does go on, and her words make Helena’s heart clench up.

“It was my own fault, sort of”, Dinah lets her know, “I just didn’t let anyone get close enough. You’re not close to anyone, no one can hurt you. That bit me in the ass when I started working for Sionis and had no one I could turn to when he started showing his psycho side. So… I’m glad I met you, I’m happy, because of you. Thank you.”

“I’m happy I met you, too”, Helena reassures her, Dinah smiling to herself in the dark; she props herself up on one arm to kiss her again, right on the lips this time, Helena kissing her back at once, moving her arms so that she can embrace her and her closer, until Dinah is practically on top of her.

“Okay”, the singer mumbles after the kiss, Helena a bit dismayed when she rolls off of her again a second later, “we better stop this, or I might lose what little bit of self control I have left. And I don’t want to pounce you when you had your first kiss literally hours ago.”

“That’s very considerate”, Helena manages, having Dinah on top of her like this has caused quite a few interesting reactions within her, but she figures that Dinah is right and that they might not want to move too fast, “we, um, we should get some rest. We still got two gems to find.”

“Yeah”, Dinah agrees, “you’re right, we got work to do tomorrow. Sleep tight.”

“You too”, Helena mumbles, now realizing how tired she is despite her arousal, it always tires her out after a while to use her voice like that; she still takes the time for another brief kiss, then just holds Dinah close as they both drift off into sleep, resting peacefully until the next morning dawns.

* * *

“Okay, so”, Dinah says in the next morning, after breakfast has been had and she’s done some research again, Helena once more mostly watching, impressed by how easily Dinah finds the information they need, “that third stone, the magma one, it’s in a private collection. At the Giordano family’s home, according to this website.”

“Yeah, that fits”, Helena comments, prompting Dinah to look at her, “they used to work with… with my family. You know, illegal mafia shit. Until… well.”

Not quite sure what she can respond to that, Dinah reaches out instead and grasps her hand, glad when this makes Helena smile a bit; they just look at each other for a few moments, then Helena glances at the screen again, even though she has read the important bits Dinah has pointed out to her.

“That might work in our favour though”, she says, Dinah looking at her again, “if I tell them who I am, they might be willing to hand it over.”

“You think they know what it can do?” Dinah wants to know, not surprised when Helena shrugs, it has been a long shot after all, “if they do, they might be even more willing to hand it over. Just, you know, to get rid of it.”

“Possibly”, Helena agrees, “only one way to find out. You feel like visiting the mansion of an Italian mobster?”

“Any other person would wonder now if that is safe”, Dinah tells her as she shuts down the laptop, making Helena smirk, “but we both can kick ass, so yeah, sure, why not.”

“That we can”, Helena solemnly agrees, earning another smile from the singer; and now that their next step has been decided, they both figure it’d be good to not waste any time, quickly changing into clothes more suitable for going out and possibly impressing or intimidating a mafia family before they leave the apartment together.

They take Helena’s bike this time, Dinah quite enjoying it to be so close to her again, having her arms wrapped around the taller woman’s waist; as Helena drives, Dinah allows her thoughts to wander, thinking back to the previous night, to the flash of heat she has felt when she has been so close to Helena, the shivers which have run up and down her spine when they’d kissed.

She knows Helena has felt similar, and for a moment worries if this puts them at risk of crashing now, as Helena has to manage focus on driving while she might be reacting strongly to Dinah so close to her, her arms around her; if it does cause those reactions again though, Helena is good at keeping herself under control, driving securely and not as if she has trouble concentrating.

Since Dinah has nothing else to do but sit behind her on the bike as she drives, she has time to ponder how crazy the past few days actually have been; not only has she gotten away from Sionis at last, but also has found this woman she has such a connection to, she never has been one to believe in things like soulmates and fate and destiny, but here she is now, and she finds it hard to deny that their meeting has been a coincidence.

For the first time in years, Dinah realizes, she has a purpose again, and feels like she isn’t just drifting from day to day, keeping her head low so Sionis won’t notice her too much, denying who she is and what she can do; the ease with which Helena uses the powers of her voice seem to make it easier for her to accept her own powers, as well, and now, as Helena keeps driving, she finds herself wondering how strong they would actually be if they’d manage to combine their voices.

Helena slowing down the bike distracts her from her thoughts, and she realizes they are pulling up to a fancy mansion in the nicer part of town; Helena stops the bike at the massive metal gate and kills the engine, both of them getting off of it before Helena strides to the intercom build into the wall next to the gate.

“They probably got eyes on us right now”, she comments, Dinah looking around in response, but unable to spot any cameras, but then, she figures, this family probably can afford technology which isn’t obvious, “wonder if they recognize me."

She reaches out to the push the button, and just before her finger touches it, a loud buzz can be heard, and the door swings open; Helena pauses, then smirks, looking at Dinah again, the singer not quite sure what to expect now, and not sure anymore at all that this has been a good idea.

“Guess they do”, Helena comments, moving back to the bike, “so, let’s get this party started.”

Dinah makes herself nod, but she still feels uneasy as they drive up the driveway to the house, quite sure that things won’t be as easy as it seems right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now let's hope everything goes well in there XD


	18. The Giordano Family

The house’s front door is already open when Helena parks the bike nearby, and a man is standing there; Dinah feels uneasy at the fact that he is holding a gun, but at least, he’s not aiming it at them, and Helena doesn’t seem all too bothered, only raising an eyebrow once she has gotten off the bike.

“What a way to welcome someone”, she then says, the man frowning at her, but not moving, keeping the gun at his side, “you greet all your guests like that?”

“Only those who come back from the dead”, the man responds, and Helena smirks a bit, the guy apparently not as amused at his own words as she is; he keeps looking at her, barely acknowledging Dinah, but then, the singer reasons, it might not hurt to have some mafia guy not pay too much attention to her.

“You know who I am, then”, Helena half states, half asks, not confirming or denying anything; he shrugs, then nods, Dinah feeling slight relief when he holsters his gun, even though he still looks somewhat tense. 

“I would have had no idea”, he tells Helena, who raises her brows in response, “but my father claims you’re the spitting image of your father. So. Come on in, Helena Bertinelli.”

He steps into the house, and Helena and Dinah follow, Dinah making sure to stay close to the other woman; she glances around as the man leads the way, the house is  _ huge _ and she can tell that the furniture and decorations have not been cheap, but then, the mafia is doing well in Gotham, so it shouldn’t surprise her.

The guy leads them to what Dinah assumes is the living room, where a much older guy is sitting in a wheelchair, presumably his father; he’s old and looks frail, but his eyes are sharp when he takes in Helena, and his hand is steady when he holds it out to her and they shake hands.

“Helena Bertinelli”, he says, his voice sounding much stronger than Dinah would have expected, judging from how he looks, “you really can’t deny you’re your father’s daughter.”

“I’ve heard I look like him”, Helena replies, keeping her voice carefully neutral, she does remember what her father looks like, and she knows she resembles him, but it’s not pleasant to be reminded of him; if the old man in the wheelchair is aware of this, he doesn’t really seem to care, giving her a somewhat sharp smile as he leans back.

“That you do”, he confirms, folding his hands in his lap, “and while that does not surprise me, I am surprised to see you here. Popular opinion was that you died in the shooting, as did anyone else with just a drop of Bertinelli blood in their veins.”

_ That _ definitely has been said so on purpose, and Dinah goes tense as she glances at Helena; if the comment bothers her, she’s good at hiding it, her face perfectly calm and her voice steady when she responds.

“Popular opinion was obviously wrong”, she says, making the guy cackle, “as you can see. Now. Shall we talk business?”

“What business could you have with an old frail man like me”, he wants to know in response, “are you planning to pick up where your family left off? That might cause… trouble. The Bertinelli turf and businesses have been split up among the families after the tragic incident.”

“I have no interest in that sort of business”, Helena tells him, and Dinah is sure he has looked almost disappointed for a moment, perhaps, she ponders as she studies him, he has been hoping to get her on his side, use her name to fuel his own status, “I’m not here for that. I’m here for the Magma Stone.”

Dinah feels some dark satisfaction about how this has clearly caught the old Giordano off guard, as he blinks, then frowns; Helena calmly holds his gaze, even gives him a pleasant smile, one Dinah recognizes as quite fake, but she’s quite certain he won’t be able to tell the difference. 

“Word on the street is you have it”, Helena goes on, “have had it for quite a while, it seems.”

“We  _ had _ it”, he corrects, and Helena has to struggle to keep her face from falling, “it was stolen, a few weeks ago. We suspect the thief has been hired by Roman Sionis, rumour has it that he is trying to collect the stones from some old legend, and apparently, the Magma Stone is mentioned in that.”

“He is”, Helena confirms, “but Sionis doesn’t have the stone. He had the Dragon’s Blood, but not anymore, either.”

“Chasing old legends, a peculiar man”, Giordano muses, “and it seems that you are doing the same thing. Sorry I can’t help you out.”

He doesn’t look like he’s sorry, but Helena decides not to comment on that; she just gives him a tight smile, then reassures him it’s no problem, deciding not to reveal why she wants the stone, and it seems he doesn’t care, either, Dinah a bit suspicious at how little he seems to be bothered by the fact that his property has been stolen, but then, not everyone can be a psycho about things they own like Sionis.

“Let me know in case you change your mind about your family’s business”, Giordano says, signalling that their talk is close to over, “my family would welcome you with open arms.”

“I’m sure of that”, Helena dryly replies, and his eyebrows twitch at her tone; he doesn’t say anything, just gives her another brief smile, then nods at his son, apparently not willing to just let them walk out unescorted.

“Marco”, he says, while Dinah sarcastically wonders if he worries they might get lost in his big house, “why don’t you take our guests to the door.”

His son nods and looks at them expectantly; Helena shakes the old Giordano’s hand again, then turns towards Marco, and he leads the way once more, taking them back to the door, looking a bit relieved once they step outside, as if he has been expecting trouble the whole time.

“Thanks for your visit”, he says, of all things, as if this is a restaurant and Helena and Dinah have been here for lunch, “have a good day.”

“Yeah, you too”, Helena says, while Dinah just nods, belatedly realizing she hasn’t said a thing the whole time, but then, this has been between Helena and the old guy, “thank you and your father for your time.”

He gives a short nod, then closes the door; and the moment it is shut, Helena sighs, as this are new complications she certainly could have done without.

“Well, then”, she says, making Dinah look at her, “guess we need to start asking around. Sionis doesn’t have the stone, so the thief either still has it or he gave it to someone else, and we need to find that out as fast as possible.”

“Yeah”, Dinah can only agree to that, “but we’ll figure it out, you know we will. We’ve gotten so far, we can figure this out, as well.”

Helena smiles a bit and nods, then pulls her in for a brief kiss before they both get onto her bike and drive off again, back to the apartment for now, until they can plan their next steps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw. But at least nothing bad happened XD


	19. Thief

“Okay, so”, Helena says once they have arrived back at the apartment and have had a quick lunch consisting of sandwiches she’s hastily thrown together in the kitchen, “how do we find a professional thief?”

“I have no idea”, Dinah has to admit, feeling a bit lost, she has reassured Helena they would figure this out back at the Giordano house, but now she realizes she doesn’t really know how, “I did work for a criminal, but I always managed to stay away from his schemes.”

“Which is good in principle, but not making this easier”, Helena sighs, Dinah nodding her agreement, “but well, can’t be helped. I guess we can’t just google that, either.”

“Not really, no”, Dinah has to agree once more, “I’m not sure GCPD is monitoring those things, but if they do, that would bring them right to our doorstep…”

She trails off and falls silent, then frowns as an idea hits her; is a long shot, she knows, but it might be the only one they have, and even if it might lead nowhere, she figures it’s worth a try.

“There’s a girl living in my house”, she says, Helena giving her a curious look and prompting her to go on, “Cassandra, she’s a teenager, but a really good pickpocket. She has to sell her stuff somewhere, so maybe her fence guy can help us find that other guy.”

“Worth a try”, Helena says out loud what Dinah has been thinking moments ago, “and it’s the only lead we have for now, so… your place it is?”   


Dinah nods, glad that they have some sort of plan now, vague and possibly useless as it might be; and so, they head out together once more, Dinah driving this time as just taking her car is easier than have her give directions while riding motorcycle.

“So, this girl”, Helena breaks the not uncomfortable silence after a while, “you know her well? She’ll tell us what we need to know?”

“I’ve helped her out before”, Dinah lets her know, keeping her gaze on the road, only briefly glancing at Helena to give her a brief smile - and to make her pull in a sharp breath when she reaches over and places one hand on the other woman’s upper thigh, “gave her some cash, tried to cheer her up, stuff like that. She’ll tell us once she’ll be sure we won’t cause trouble for her.”

“Alright”, Helena says, and even though it’s just one word, Dinah can hear the brief hitch in her breath; for a moment, she almost considers pulling her hand back, she doesn’t want to get Helena all riled up and nervous just before they’ll speak to Cassandra, but before she can actually remove her hand, Helena places her own on top of it, and Dinah immediately decides to leave it where it is.

She only does pull back once her building is near and she has to change gears; from the corner of her eye, she sees Helena look dismayed for a moment, the taller woman not saying anything though, only nodding when Dinah parks her car in front of the building and lets her know that this is it.

“Now let’s hope Cass will be home”, she comments as she kills the engine, Helena nodding her agreement, “but if not, I know a few of her favourite hangouts.”

Helena nods again, and Dinah finds her keys to unlock the front door; and as it turns out, they don’t need to go far to find Cassandra, the girl sitting on the stairs right there near the door and toying with her phone, looking up though when Dinah steps up to her, Helena hanging back a bit, figuring it’ll be smart to let the singer do the talking.

“Hey”, Cassandra greets her, eying her a bit warily, and Dinah wonders why that is, as they have been on good terms so far, “been a while since I saw you.”

“I know”, Dinah agrees, smiling at her, “how have you been?”

“Good”, Cassandra replies, then raises her brows at her, “but you’re in trouble. Some guy has been around asking for you.”

“What?” Dinah manages, not quite having expected that, while Helena frowns and glances around as if she expects said guy to pop up out of nowhere any moment, “what kind of guy?”

“Sorta creepy”, Cassandra lets her know, and Dinah knows who she is talking about even before she continues, “really light blonde hair, gold tooth, scars, gave off real creeper vibes. Told him I haven’t seen you in days.”

“Zsasz”, Dinah says, turning to Helena, who grimaces and nods, “damn, and here I was thinking Sionis would have better things to do than try chasing me down. Well, at least we’re warned now. Don’t tell him you saw me in case he comes back, yeah?”

“Of course not”, Cassandra tells her at once, sounding a bit offended at the mere idea, “as if I’d tell anything to such a creepy guy. Who’s your friend?”

“Helena”, Dinah lets her know, Helena feeling a bit awkward as she gives a little wave, glad when Cassandra smiles after a moment; then, she focuses on Dinah again, raising her brows, Helena a bit impressed by how fast she figures out that this is not a visit just for fun.

“So, why you here”, she wants to know, “I guess not just to say Hi, or to find out about creepy guy.”

“Well, no”, Dinah admits, “and it has nothing to do with the creepy guy, either, even though that is good to know, so thanks. We need to know where you sell the stuff you pickpocket, don’t worry, you’re not in trouble, we just want to know.”

“Why”, Cassandra wants to know, raising her brows again, but thankfully not jumping up and bolting, apparently trusting Dinah enough to believe her when she says she is not in trouble, “you guys stole something? Since when do you do that?”

“We didn’t steal anything”, Dinah says at once, shaking her head for emphasis, Helena doing the same, “but we need to find someone who did, and that was our only idea. So. Where?”

“You don’t know that name and place from me, you hear”, Cassandra replies, somewhat strict for a teenager her age, but Dinah doesn’t let that deter her, nodding her agreement at once, “cause if you tell him that, then I can’t go there anymore. And that would be really shitty.”

“We’re not gonna tell”, Dinah reassures her, relieved when Cassandra believes her, as she gives them a name - Rat, which is perhaps not the best name for someone working as a fence, but then, Dinah has heard stranger nicknames - and an address; Dinah thanks the girl, then slips her a twenty, just so she won’t have to steal for another day or two, earning a bright smile in response.

“Take care”, Dinah tells her, not bothering anymore to tell her to stop stealing, figuring it won’t help, and she does have reasons, with how her foster parents neglect her, “and if the creepy guy comes back, stay away from him, he’s bad news.”

“Yeah, one look at him is enough to know that”, Cassandra comments, making Dinah nod, Helena doing the same after a moment; and then, they say goodbye and head back to Dinah’s car, glad that they have a sort of lead now, even though they are both aware it might lead nowhere, eager to get to the man and find out what he knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helpful Cass is helpful XD


	20. Rat

“That doesn’t look very… shady”, Helena says once they stand at the address Cassandra has given them; it looks like a fairly normal shop, apparently selling all sorts of electronics and phone accessories, but then, Helena realizes, it’s probably a good thing to not look shady when one actually does shady things, if only to be less suspicious.

“I guess that is the point”, Dinah says out loud what Helena has been thinking, making her nod, “I don’t doubt it is the right place, Cass wouldn’t have given us wrong info. Come on, let’s see if Rat is here.”

Helena enters first this time, figuring she can take care of any threat which might be present; the inside looks just as much as a normal store as the outside has though, even though the clerk behind the counter looks as if the nickname Rat might fit him, his facial features distinctly reminding her of this sort of rodent, and he even blinks a bit nervously when he looks at Dinah and her, as if he can tell they aren’t regular customers.

“Welcome to Ace Electronics”, he still greets them in an overly cheerful manner, and Helena is instantly annoyed, “how can I help you?”

“We share an… acquaintance”, Dinah lets him know, and he frowns, “we’ve been told you might be able to help us. In case we need to locate someone with… certain talents.”

“I don’t know what you mean”, he claims at once, shaking his head for emphasis; Dinah raises her brows, apparently willing to debate this with him, but Helena is in no mood to put up with it, taking a swift stop closer and glaring at him, the power of her glare enough to make him cower.

“Don’t bother to lie”, she coldly tells him, Dinah giving her a warning look, if they frighten him too much, it might only make him clam up completely, but for the moment, Helena’s intimidation tactic seems to work, and it makes Dinah wonder if they should go for a good cop / bad cop sort of thing, “we know you’re fencing shit. And we know you got contacts.”

“We’re not here to cause trouble”, Dinah decides to play the good part in contrast to Helena’s grumpy demeanor, figuring she’ll be better at it than a woman who has been raised by three old men in remote Sicily, “we just need information. You tell us what you know, you will never see us again, I promise.”

Rat doesn’t say anything to that, but he does relax a bit, enough for Dinah to notice; she gives him another smile, and takes a step closer to the counter, glad when he doesn’t move away, even though he briefly glances at Helena before he focuses on her again.

“We're looking for someone”, Dinah lets him know, making sure to hold his gaze while Helena crosses her arms over her chest, letting the singer do the talking again, “someone who was hired to steal from Roman Sionis, but didn’t succeed.”

“I might know about that”, Rat concedes, Helena feeling her rage flare when he gives Dinah a smarmy smile, but holding it back for now, telling herself that Dinah has this under control, “but what’s in it for me if I tell you? Rat don’t work for free, you know.”

“We can pay you”, Dinah lets him know, but that doesn’t seem to be what he wants to hear; he raises his brows and grins at her, exposing quite bad teeth, the singer having to struggle to not shout his head off at what he says next.

“I don’t need money”, he lets her know, “but I’m sure the two of us can figure something out. There’s other… ways… you can pay me, you know.”

He grins and grabs his crotch to make it crystal clear what he is talking about; and the blink of an eye later, Dinah can hear a harsh  _ “fus!” _ from behind her, and Rat is thrown back and against the wall, various of the little items which have been on the counter raining down around him as he slumps down to the ground, looking dazed.

Helena gives him no time to recover, moving past Dinah and over the counter in one fluid motion; crossing her arms over her chest and smirking, Dinah watches how Helena lands in front of the guy, grabs his shirt and yanks him to his feet, then slams him against the wall once more for good measure, earning a groan from him which turns into a whimper when she glares at him.

“Here’s how this will go”, she says, Dinah not bothering to hide her amusement at his obvious fear, certainly, he hasn’t expected any of this, probably least of all to be thrown against by the wall by some sort of voice magic, “you tell us what we want to know,  _ now _ , and you’ll get out of this in one piece. You take another second, I’ll start breaking bones. And you don’t look at her again, not even for a second.”

“Okay, okay, fine”, he stammers, Helena darkly satisfied to see he is keeping his eyes on her, “I’ll tell you, shit, it was Roach, alright? But he fucked up and got caught, he’s in jail, and they still got the stone there, at GCPD.”

“Rat and Roach”, Helena snarks, and he cowers visibly at her tone, “how fitting. Thank you very much for your help.”

She lets go of his shirt, and he relaxes visibly, letting his guard down - and the moment he thinks he’s safe, Helena slams her knee up and into his groin, and he gasps, his eyes going wide as he slumps down to his knees, grabbing his crotch again, for a very different reason this time though, his face paling drastically as he wheezes for air.

“Yikes”, Dinah comments while Helena now walks back around the counter, dusting off her hands as if she’s touched something dirty, “that must hurt. Well, they do say pain is a great teacher, so let’s hope you learn something from this.”

He can only groan in reply, curled up on the ground now; Dinah takes a moment to send another smirk his way, then takes hold of Helena’s arm, oddly pleased when she immediately feels the tense muscle relax at her touch.

“Come on babe”, she lightly says, taking note of how Helena blushes at the pet name, a far cry from the stone cold badass she has been moments ago, “let’s go, we got what we came here for.”

“Yeah”, Helena manages, and Dinah notices the little hitch in her voice, squeezing her arm slightly and only making her blush deeper, “we definitely did. So, uhm, let’s go.”

They leave the store together without looking back, and walk to Dinah’s car; before she unlocks it though, she pulls Helena in for quite the deep kiss, the taller woman noticeably flushed and breathing heavier by the time they pull apart again.

“Thank you”, Dinah says, before Helena has the chance to speak up, “for standing up for me like that.”

“Anytime”, is all Helena has the time to say, then Dinah is kissing her again, and for a few moments, they both forget about their mission and the task at hand, only able to focus on each other and on how good this is making them feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helena is not happy when someone disrespects Dinah...


	21. Closer

“Okay, so”, Dinah says once they are in the relative safety of her car, “we now know where the Magma Stone is, which is good. The bad thing is that it’s at GCPD, and we can’t just waltz in there and take it.”

“I guess not”, Helena has to agree, frowning, then shrugging and brightening up again, “but I can be sneaky, you know that. I can sneak in there and take it.”

“Yeah, you did that at Sionis’ place”, Dinah remembers well, “but he only had two guards up there and those weren’t good at their job. That place, on the other hand, will be swarming with cops.”

“As far as I remember, the Gotham cops are not exactly known for being very… diligent”, Helena points out, and Dinah has to admit this is a good point, “so while waltzing in might not work, but if I’m sneaky, I should be good.”

“You want to go there right now?” Dinah wants to know, and Helena considers this for a moment, then shakes her head, she’s good at being sneaky if she has to, but it still will be safer to go there once it’s dark, and this is what she tells Dinah, the singer nodding her agreement at once.

“Back to the apartment it is, then”, she says, making it Helena’s turn to nod, “maybe you should get a nap if you plan to break into GCPD late at night. We can cuddle.”

“I like the sound of that”, Helena says at once, sounding so eager that it makes Dinah laugh; the taller woman grins back at her, then leans back into her seat, and for a while, there is silence, until Dinah speaks up again, making Helena look at her once more.

“You only said one word this time”, she says, Helena a bit impressed at Dinah having picked this up, “when you threw Rat against the wall. With the Joker, it was three, but I think the first one was the same, no? Was it  _ voos _ ?”

“Fus”, Helena corrects her, at the same moment demonstrating that the words don’t cause any effects unless she wants them to do, to Dinah’s slight relief, she doesn’t want to imagine what might have happened to her windshield otherwise, “and yeah, I only used that one, I probably would have killed him if I had used all three. Less room between him and myself and between the wall and him than in the Joker’s living room.”

“Yeah, that makes sense”, Dinah nods, earning another smile from the other woman, “wouldn’t have been good to kill him. What does it mean?”

“Force”, Helena lets her know, and even though her mentors have taught her to not reveal her secrets to anyone, ever, it feels strangely good and right to tell Dinah this, to finally share it with someone who is not an old man in Sicily, and someone at that who means as much to her as Dinah does, “there’s two more to it, the more words I use, the more powerful it is. Force, Balance, Push. Fus Ro Dah.”

“Fus Ro Dah”, Dinah repeats, more to herself than to Helena or to actually try it out, but she can feel  _ something _ when she says the words, and Helena sits up straight, looking at her, then down on her arms, and Dinah is not surprised to see goosebumps have formed there.

“Okay”, Helena says, having to clear her throat before she can go on, “I’ve been told there’s always just one dragonborn in one generation, and you would probably know by now if you were dragonborn but… you can definitely do  _ something _ with those words. We should try it out once we have time. And are at a safe place.”

Dinah nods at that, she knows her voice has power, and she wonders if she can actually use the words Helena uses; neither the car, nor Helena’s apartment are a good place to find this out though, and so, she shrugs the idea off for now, having other things on her mind by the time she parks in front of Helena’s apartment building.

She has had fairly innocent thoughts when she has suggested a nap and cuddling, but once they are up at the apartment, Helena changes into clothes more suitable for napping, namely boxers and a sleeveless shirt, and any innocent thoughts Dinah may have had are obliterated as this ensemble gives her a  _ very  _ good look at Helena’s build.

_ Keep in mind _ , Dinah tells herself as she changes into more comfortable clothes, as well,  _ don’t jump her bones, this is all new for her. _

She’s very determined to keep her hands to herself even as they do cuddle up in bed, but apparently, Helena has other ideas, lack of experience notwithstanding; it doesn’t take long until she moves one hand and starts rubbing Dinah’s back, slow, tender circles, and not long after that, she’s kissing the singer, the kiss quickly deepening as Dinah wraps both arms around her as best as she can with the way they both are lying down. 

Still Dinah tells herself to not move too fast, not wanting to make Helena uncomfortable; as it is though, Helena clearly still has no such qualms, as one of her hands slides beneath the loose shirt Dinah as put on, up her bare back, and then to her front, the singer unable to hold back a moan when she feels calloused, but gentle fingers cup her breast.

Helena pulls back from the kiss long enough to give Dinah a questioning look, wordlessly asking her if this is okay; and Dinah responds by pulling her in for another kiss and arching into her touch, Helena clearly spurred on by this reaction, moving her thumb and index finger so she can give her nipple a slight squeeze, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to elicit yet another moan. 

They kiss for a little while longer, then Helena pulls back again, but only so she can pull Dinah’s shirt over her head; the singer does the same to the one Helena is wearing, and once both shirts are gone, Helena moves lower, Dinah having to bite back a moan which might have carried along some of her power otherwise when she feels the other woman’s lips focus on her breast now instead of her mouth. 

One of her hands grips the blanket she lies on while the other moves to Helena’s hair, then to the back of her neck; Helena takes a moment to glance up at her and smirk - before she starts kissing her way down Dinah’s stomach, the singer both impressed and turned on when Helena opens her pants with only her teeth and tongue.

She has a moment to wonder which other skills the woman has when it comes to her tongue, then Helena lowers her head and demonstrates, and for quite a while, Dinah doesn’t think much anymore at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohoho xD


	22. Evidence

After their intimate time together, Dinah and Helena have actually cuddled, and have taken a much needed nap; and now, hours later, as night has come, Dinah parks her car a safe distance from GCPD, Helena looking quite calm and relaxed in the passenger seat, even though she will break into the evidence storage of said building in a few minutes.

“Please be careful”, Dinah tells her as she pulls on gloves so she won’t leave any fingerprints, “don’t get caught.”

“I’ll take care”, Helena reassures her, then leans in for a brief kiss, quietly reassuring her it will be okay; by the time she pulls back, Dinah is smiling again, nodding when the taller woman continues.

“I’ll be in and out before they even realize I’m there”, she tells the singer, perhaps sounding a bit cocky, but then, she is aware of her skill, and of what she can do, even though she doesn’t like the idea of using her powers against people who are only doing their jobs and are not criminals, “no worries.”

“Good”, Dinah says, stealing another quick kiss before Helena finally does get out of the car; she stuffs her hands into the pocket of her jacket to hide the gloves, figuring those might make her look suspicious, then walks the short distance to the building, striding in as if she owns the place.

There’s a few cops loitering around, none of them looking too busy, and none of them paying any attention to her; she hasn’t had time to scout the place and figure out where they keep the evidence, but she figures it can’t be too hard to find, the building doesn’t look that big and it probably isn’t in an area which can be easily reached by the public.

_ Either at the back or in the basement _ , she thinks to herself, strolling through the lobby as unobtrusive as possible, glad when no one looks her way, the cops in this building truly aren’t very good at their job,  _ probably at the back, so the higher up can get there quickly, without having to climb stairs. _

A few cops do look at her when she walks towards the open plan office at the back, but nobody asks her who she is and what she is doing here; there’s a few detectives around, talking to people at their desks, and Helena figures the cops who have seen her walk in probably think she is here for such a talk, as well, as it doesn’t seem like an unlikely thing to happen.

And they even have done her the favour to mark their storage, Helena notices a moment later, a sign with bold letters telling her where the evidence room is; she fights the urge to glance around as she strides towards it, but once again no one seems to pay her any mind, and she wonders how these cops can get anything done, with how unobservant they apparently are.

_ Good for you, though _ , she thinks to herself as she tries the handle and is happy to find the door unlocked; she slips into the room and quietly closes the door behind herself, then takes a closer look at the room, grimacing at how big it is and how much stuff there is.

She wonders if there is any system behind how things are put on the shelves, but if there is, she can’t figure it out; there’s boxes too, she sees, and she nearly groans out loud, wondering how she is supposed to find the stone in this chaos.

For a moment, Helena feels lost, and wishes that Dinah was here, so they could split up and be more efficient in their search; then, she tells herself that she can do this, and decides to start at the far end of the room, moving there quickly, but soundlessly, looking at the shelves as she walks past them, glad that at least, she knows what the Magma Stone looks like.

She can’t spot it anywhere on the first row of shelves, and moves on to the next one; her annoyance grows when this one yields no result, either, and she wonders if this is a waste of time, if she will never find the stone in this mess, no matter how long she looks.

_ No _ , Helena then scolds herself, setting her jaw,  _ you have to find it, giving up is not an option and you know it. You know Sionis won’t give up, either. _

She finishes another row with no success, and just as she steps to the next one, the door opens and a woman steps inside, Helena freezing as she is right out there in the open, there is no way the woman can miss her.

If the cop is surprised to see her in here, she gets over it quickly; her eyes widen for a second, then she grabs a blocky black thing from her belt - not her gun, Helena notes, which is potentially good - and aims it her, eyes cold and voice hard as steel when she snaps at her to freeze.

“What the fuck are you doing in here”, she demands to know as Helena’s mind races, “and who are you?”

_ You could just blast her out of the way and run _ , Helena thinks to herself, but she doesn’t enjoy that thought, after all, she is not supposed to be in here and this woman has every right to ask her these things,  _ or try to blast something near her, distract her, then run. _

“Listen”, she decides to try to win some time, raising her hands at the same time so she won’t appear as a threat, “I know what this looks like, but I’m here for something important. If I don’t get it, the world will end, Sionis--”

“Sionis!” the woman snaps, her eyes narrowing, and Helena realizes at once she shouldn’t have said that name, “you work for him, don’t you!”

“No!” Helena protests, not thinking as she takes a step forward, too offended by this absurd accusation to consider how this might look, her temper flaring, “you don’t get it, I--”

“Freeze!” the woman snaps, and Helena stops moving at once, she doesn’t know what the thing the cop is aiming at her actually does, it doesn’t look like a gun, but she figures it will have some sort of effect; and a moment later, she nearly groans, as the cop calls for backup, a bunch of guys stepping into the room moments later, looking from her to Helena in confusion, clearly much slower to catch on than the woman herself has been.

“Who’s that, Montoya”, one of them wants to know, and Helena can tell the question frustrates the cop, not that she can blame her; and she has to give her credit for not taking her eyes off of her as she answers, keeping the strange weapon aimed at her, as well, not really giving her a chance to do anything.

“I don’t know  _ who  _ she is”, she snaps, the cop who has asked making a face at her tone, “but she’s obviously not supposed to be here. Arrest her.”

“Okay, that can’t happen”, Helena decides, and Montoya blinks at how brazen that is; not wasting any more time, Helena mentally apologizes to the cops - before she barks out  _ “fus!” _ , figuring the one word will be enough to stagger them and hopefully throw them over, but not seriously hurt any of them.

It does stagger most of them, and two even fall on their butts; Montoya staggers, too, eyes wide, but she recovers fast, faster than Helena has expected her to, already having recovered by the time Helena is near the door.

From the corner of her eye, Helena sees her aim the black thing again, then she is past her; and a second later, something hits her in the back, and suddenly bright pain flashes through her body and it feels as if every single muscle she has cramps up, she even bites her tongue as she falls, unable to do anything but lie there twitching as electricity runs through her.

“Whatever that shit was”, she hears the cop as she struggles to stay conscious, but at least, the electricity stops, she’s still in pain, and she can taste blood in her mouth, “nice try. You’re under arrest.”

Helena knows she has to get back up and fight, so she can get away, but her muscles refuse to listen to the frantic comments her brain is sending, and all she can do is groan when she feels the cop grab her arms and pull them behind her back, cold steel clicking around her wrists moments later.

_ Shit _ , she still has time to think, then she is yanked to her feet by two of the other cops and dragged off, she can’t believe how wrong this has gone and for now, she has no real idea how she’ll get out of this again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, Helena is in trouble XD


	23. Rescue

“I’m asking you again”, Montoya says quite a while later, glaring at Helena, the taller woman looking back at her unimpressed, “who are you, and what were you looking for?”   


Helena says nothing, figuring that silence is her best option for now; she can tell it pisses the cop off, and she wonders if she’ll be hit any moment, she knows that in Sicily, people tended to fall down the stairs or run into doors when they’d been arrested and wouldn’t talk, but while Montoya does look pissed, she doesn’t look like the sort of cop who’d do such a thing.

“Come on”, Montoya apparently decides to take the “nice cop” route for now, even managing a smile, “just tell me your name, I’m sure we can figure something out, but I need to know what I can call you.”

Helena says nothing again, just keeps looking back at her, her face perfectly neutral; and after a few moments, Montoya apparently gives up, her smile vanishing as she lets out an unhappy sigh.

“Fine”, she then says, Helena unimpressed by the hard look the woman shoots her, “to the holding cell you go then, maybe a few hours in there will get you to change your mind.”

Helena says nothing again, and lets it happen that the two burly cops Montoya calls into the interrogation room pull her off her seat; she almost expects them to accidentally have her walk into the wall or something, but Montoya is right behind them, and nothing of the sort happens, the woman giving her another steely look once she has been escorted to the cell block and locked up in one of the few empty cells.

Most of the other cells are occupied, Helena notes while the door is shut with an audible  _ clang _ , and all of those occupants are men; they look at her balefully as she lets her gaze wander, but she’s not very bothered, knowing she could take them all if she wanted to.

What does bother her is that she isn’t sure how to get out of this; she knows she could use frost breath to break the metal bars, but as she lies down on the bunk and folds her hands beneath her head, she can see a bunch of security cameras, and figures she’s being watched, and not even her powers will help her against the hail of bullets she might cause if she used her powers to break free.

_ Dinah will realize something is wrong _ , she tells herself as she stares up at the ceiling, once again glad that she doesn’t need to do this alone,  _ and she’ll figure something out. You know she will. _

She feels wide awake, after all the excitement, but still closes her eyes, and tries to empty her mind; she has been taught to spend hours like this, her mentors have foreseen that there might be times when all she can do is wait and sit still, and they have taught her how to do it, how to go through these times without losing her mind due to sheer boredom.

Helena empties her mind, but still pays a certain level of attention to her surroundings; and so, after a while has passed, she picks up a sort of commotion outside the cell block, and opens her eyes again, sitting up on the bunk, noticing that the other prisoners are mumbling amongst each other, clearly hearing it, as well.

There’s shouting now, and loud banging sounds, and Helena is pretty sure she hears bodies hit the ground, she knows what that sounds like; and a short while later, the door at the far end of the room flies open, and it’s Dinah and Harley standing there, Helena coming to her feet at once as a smile curls her lips, even though she’s not quite sure why Harley Quinn is here.

Dinah scans the room, and their eyes meet, making her smile a bit as well - and just then, the sprinklers go off, spraying water into the room, and Helena frowns, not quite sure this is supposed to happen as there is no fire, but on the other hand, she’s not bothered by a bit of water.

Dinah seems unhappy about the water as well, but ignores it as she makes her way to Helena’s cell; she stops at the door, and grabs the bars, Helena not quite sure what she plans to do, but she gets up and moves over, momentarily forgetting her predicament, too happy to be worried that Dinah has come for her.

“I knew you’d come”, she declares, Dinah’s smile widening slightly in response, “didn’t know you’d bring Harley, though.”

“Well, I am a badass”, Dinah tells her, making her smile again, “but even I would have had a hard time taking the whole police station on my own. Anyway, we’re good, just need to get this door open and…”

There’s an audible  _ click _ and the door swings open, Dinah falling silent while Helena blinks; and a moment later, she realizes that this hasn’t been some unknown power Dinah so far has been unaware of, but that all the other doors have opened, too, possibly caused by the same error which has prompted the sprinklers to go off.

“Shit”, Dinah swears as the other inmates realize their luck and come to their feet, grinning at them in a way which shows that escape is certainly not their first thought, “Harley! This is totally your fault. She smashed the control panel thing.”

“I regret nothing”, Harley declares, then belatedly realizes that most of the guys seem to focus on her, and start spewing threats, apparently not happy with her presence for one reason or another, and she grimaces, “okay, maybe I regret it a little bit. Some help, you guys?”

Helena and Dinah exchange a look, Helena shrugging, then nodding, figuring they might as well help her out, after all, she has helped Dinah get her out of here, too; Dinah takes a step back so Helena can push the door open and step out of the cell, a smirk curling the tall woman’s lips - she figures it might not be healthy to actually enjoy fighting, but she does, and she can’t quite help herself.

“You two just leave”, one of the guys says, and while some of the others look disappointed, most of them nod, “this is between Quinn and us.”

“No can do”, Dinah tells them, Helena already clenching her fists as she gets ready, knowing the fight will break any moment, “but you guys can just leave, you know, enjoy your freedom. If you don’t, you’ll just end up on the ground here and go back to those cells once the cops have recovered.”

“Get them”, the one who has addressed them snarls, and they get moving, splitting up to go after Harley and after Dinah and Helena; Helena moves to meet the first one, she knows Dinah is capable, but she has had years of training, and she wants to end this quickly, before the cops do recover and cause more trouble.

She ducks the man’s clumsy punch, grabs his arm with one hand and yanks him forward and down, bringing her knee up at the same time; there’s an audible and unpleasant  _ crunch _ when it meets his face, and he goes down, blood splashing and mixing with the water which is starting to pool on the floor.

Next to her, Dinah kicks another one, sends him reeling towards her, and all she has to do is stretch out her foot to make him fall; a few feet away, Harley is doing well on her own, Helena notes, throwing one guy over her shoulder and then somehow managing to turn that into a rather impressive gymnastic move which ends with her kicking another guy with both feet, sending him down as well.

Helena raises her brows at that in appreciation, but doesn’t have time for much more than that; she sees one guy charge at her, like an angry bull, she waits until the last possible second before she, in one swift move, sidesteps his attack and yanks the door of her cell open so that it slams into him, a pained yelp coming from him as he goes down.

She has a moment to be proud at how well this spur of the moment idea has worked, then strong arms grab her around the waist from behind; she tries to slam her head back to break the man’s nose, but he has seen it coming and turns his head just in time, yanking her up at the same time and turning as they fall, Helena having to give him credit for how he uses his heavier build to slam her into the ground.

She goes limp on purpose, giving him the impression that he has knocked her out; she hears him snicker as he comes to his feet, then he grabs the back of her jacket, and when he moves to pull her up, Helena moves along with him and slams up her elbow, right into his face, a pained cry coming from him as he lets go of her and stumbles back.

Ready to take him down fully, Helena springs to her feet and turns, but Dinah is already there, kicking the guy in the stomach, then in the back of the head when he doubles over; she glares at him as he falls and kicks him once more for good measure, making sure he stays down.

“This is what you get for throwing my girl around”, she declares, and warmth blossoms in Helena’s chest; she knows she has no time to dwell on this now, there’s still a few guys standing, and while those guys by now must have realized that all three of them are good at fighting, they’re not willing to back down. 

Helena and Dinah exchange one look, then get moving, Helena a bit amazed by how well they work together already, considering how shortly they actually have been doing so; she moves for one guy and Dinah for another, and both are down a few moments later, Harley taking care of the last man standing.

“There we go”, she then says, holding up her hands and using the water still raining down on them to wash them, to Helena’s amusement, “now let’s get outta here.”

“We can’t”, Helena tells her, and she gasps while Dinah just nods, having expected this, “we still need to find the stone, then we can get out.”

“Fine”, Harley sighs, and that surprises both Dinah and Helena a bit, as they both have been somewhat sure Harley would duck out again, now that her job has been done, “let’s go look for this dumb stone then, the three of us will be faster if we split up. What does it look like?”

Helena quickly describes it to her, then three of them head off to the evidence room, leaving a bunch of groaning men behind, all three of them glad that they have made it through the fight and out of there unscathed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay teamwork xD


	24. Findings

“Okay, it has to be on one of those shelves”, Helena declares once they have made it to the evidence room, thankfully without anyone having noticed as there is still quite the chaos from Harley and Dinah’s earlier attack, “I already checked the two back there, it wasn’t on them.”

“Good to know”, Harley comments as she starts looking around already, clearly quite enthusiastic about the task at hand, “let’s go find this stone then! Yay, treasure hunt!”

She claps her hands and bounds off to the far back of the room, Helena watching her go with raised eyebrows; and she’s ready to start searching as well, but before she can do more than turn towards one of the shelves, Dinah steps up to her, taking gentle hold of her hands and distracting her, and suddenly, she’s glad Harley is a few rows of shelves down the room, where she can’t see or hear them.

“Are you okay?” Dinah asks her, giving her a worried look, “they didn’t hurt you, did they? Or the guys during the fight?”   


“I’m fine”, Helena tells her at once, earning a smile from her, “the overzealous cop who arrested me used some weird electric shock thing, but I’m fine.”

“Good”, Dinah says, then pulls her in for a brief, but gentle kiss; and afterwards, they both start searching through the shelves too, Helena trying to not let the sheer number of them put her down, telling herself that, with the three of them, they will find it for sure now.

She moves past various uninteresting things, raising her eyebrows at a collection of weapons among the evidence, and especially at the chainsaw, wondering who would use that outside a cheesy 80s slasher movie; then, she shrugs it off and keeps looking, hearing Dinah and Harley move through the room as well, only to freeze a moment later when the sound of the door opening reaches her ears.

_ Dammit _ , Helena thinks to herself, annoyed, wondering if the cops have nothing better to do than come in here now, after the chaos Dinah and Harley have caused; then, she hears Harley ask “who’re you guys?” in an honestly confused tone, and she figures it’s not cops, surely, Harley wouldn’t ask cops at a police station who they are.

And just as she finishes that thought, the shooting starts, and she throws herself down to the floor out of pure reflex; she hears Harley curse, but figures this is good as it probably means they haven’t hit her, but she can’t hear Dinah, and that makes her heart clench up with sudden fear.

Staying low, Helena moves as fast as she can along the shelves, keeping out of sight; she peers around one of them, relieved to see Dinah apparently unhurt crouching on the ground, the singer wide-eyed when their gazes meet, Helena gesturing at her to stay down and earning a terse nod in response. 

As Helena moves closer, she can hear sounds of fighting, dull blows and men grunting, apparently, Harley is doing fine on her own; she still figures it can’t hurt to help, so she keeps moving, until she can see the guys, three of them still standing and two down on the ground.

One of them has been using a chain as a weapon, she notes, it’s still lying close to his limp hand; quickly, Helena snatches it up and smirks to herself, apparently, the guys still on their feet think Harley is alone and have no idea that she’s coming from behind.

She makes sure to not make any sound as she moves closer, one of the guys moving to attack while the other two apparently plan to wait until Harley is distracted by the one attacking; before they can make their move though, Helena whips the chain forward, and it wraps around the throat of one of them, just as she has intended, one powerful pull enough to yank him off his feet, a soundless huff leaving him as he hits the floor.

Leaving him there, Helena moves to go for the second guy, just when he turns to face her; before she can do more than take a few steps closer though, the one who has been fighting Harley falls, and Harley throws the baseball bat she’s gotten from God knows where, impressing Helena with her aim as it hits the guy in the head and takes him down, too.

“Good one”, she compliments, while the attackers are groaning on the ground, “you know these guys?”

“No”, Harley says, frowning now, while Dinah comes to join them, a bit miffed that she has missed the fight, but then, it has been over fairly quickly, “they just popped in here while I was looking for your stone thing.”

“Hm”, Helena lets out, then moves to the one she has taken down; he’s still trying to get the chain off his neck, but before he can do so, Helena grabs it and uses it to yank him to his feet, then slams him back against the nearest shelf, and he coughs, the cold steel around his throat not allowing him to do much more than that, and effectively keeping him from fighting back, especially when Helena just has to pull a little bit and it tightens, making it very clear to him who has the upper hand.

“What do you want here”, she demands to know, it seems a bit too much like a coincidence that random thugs would break into this room at the same time the three of them are there, “and who sent you?”

“Sionis”, he presses out, and pales at the way Helena’s face darkens in response, “didn’t know you’d… be here. Please I can’t breathe…”

She loosens the chain a little bit, just enough so he can pull in a harsh breath of air; Harley and Dinah move closer, curious what the guy has to say, Helena keeping her eyes on him though, not wanting to give him a chance to try anything.

“He hired us”, the guy goes on without Helena having to say anything else, clearly frightened by her, and Dinah has to admit that her glare is quite impressive, she’d be scared too if she didn’t know her and was on the receiving end of that, “to find a book and a stone here, he sent us pics, you can see them on my phone, just let me get it out of--”

“Don’t move a muscle”, Helena snaps, tightening the chain again for good measure, and he gasps; Helena gives Harley a look, and while she pouts at being the one asked to do it, Harley does move closer and grimaces as she reaches into the guy’s pocket, glad when it does contain his phone and nothing disgusting or questionable. 

“Check the texts”, Helena tells her, and she does, after the guy has given her the unlock code; unsurprisingly, there is a photo of the Magma Stone, but also of the book the guy has mentioned, an old looking thick tome, Dinah letting out a small gasp when she sees it.

“I’ve seen that!” she then declares, figuring it can’t hurt to take it if Sionis wants it, too; Helena takes a moment to knock the guy out, slamming his head back against the shelf and dismissing him the moment he goes down, then wants to know where the book is, quietly hoping that perhaps, the stone won’t be far from it.

Dinah leads the way to one of the shelves she has been looking through, the book resting among several bags filled with what Helena assumes to be cocaine; she quickly grabs it, figuring she can take a look at it later, shoving it into her jacket so her hands are free before she turns towards Dinah and Harley again.

“We still need the stone”, she reminds them, making them both nod, even though Harley at this point looks as if she is losing interest; she still goes back to the search with the other two, and this time, nobody interrupts them anymore, the guys out cold on the ground while the cops are still busy at the station’s main area, unaware that they are even in here.

“Helena!” Dinah calls out to her a short while later, sounding excited, and Helena hopes this is a good sign; she quickly moves to where the singer is a few rows of shelves down, and the way her whole face lights up when she sees what Dinah is holding makes her smile, as well, a proud smile she figures she has earned as she holds the stone up for Helena to see.

“Got it”, she says, Harley clapping her hands while Helena nods, recognizing the stone at ones; Dinah hands it over to her, and she pockets it, then lets the other two know they should get out of here now, before some cops do show up and complicate things again.

“Thanks for the help”, she then adds towards Harley as they get ready to head out, “we appreciate it.”

“Anytime, doll”, Harley says, and while Helena doesn’t appreciate that nickname much, she holds back the urge to roll her eyes, “now, let me cause some more mayhem out there so you two lovebirds can make an easy exit. Later!”

She practically skips out the door back to the station’s main area, and not even a minute later, there’s shouting again, and loud banging sounds; and Helena and Dinah use the distraction she causes well, hurrying out of the building together without looking back, unaware that one person is watching them go with fire in their eyes, following them without anyone taking note of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, who might be after them?


	25. Ancient Words

Once they are back at the apartment, Helena first of all puts the Magma Stone away with the other two, happy that they have three of the four stones now; the only one missing is the diamond, and she knows that might be hardest to find, but they have three, she tells herself, and that is very good, better than she has dared to hope, considering she hasn’t been back in Gotham for that long.

Carefully, she closes the box and puts it back in its hiding place, then goes to find Dinah in the living room; the singer is sitting on the couch and looking at the book they have brought from the police station, frowning as she turns the pages, smiling though when Helena moves to sit down next to her.

“So”, Helena says, nodding at the book, “do we know why Sionis wanted this?”

“There’s stuff about dragons in here”, Dinah lets her know, handing the book to her so she can take a look, “maybe it’s like a guide, how to wake them up once the stones have been acquired?”

“Could be”, Helena nods as she quickly scans the pages, “look, here’s a description of the Firebird’s Beak, so I think you’re right. Good thing we found that, Sionis really…”

She turns another page as she talks, and falls silent, her eyes widening; next to her, Dinah gives her a worried look, then glances at the page which apparently has shocked her into silence, but she’s not quite sure why Helena would react like that, all she can see is strange thick lines with little hooks and dots here and there, it means nothing to her, but it does have an obvious effect on Helena.

“Helena?” she quietly says, not quite sure what to do now, if there is anything she  _ can _ do, “babe? Are you okay, what is it?”

Helena needs a moment before she can nod, this is the last thing she has expected to find in a place like Gotham; she runs her fingers over the page, and can practically  _ feel _ the power of the words, belatedly realizing that Dinah has no idea what is going on and that she should probably explain before the singer worries even more.

“This”, she says, vaguely gesturing at the page, “is the language of dragons. It’s… another shout, I think, I know there are a few they couldn’t teach me but… I didn’t expect to find one here.”

“Oh wow”, Dinah lets out, impressed, eying the strange symbols, “do you know what it does? Or can you only find out by trying it out? Can you learn it from the book?”

“Well, if I remember my dragon language correctly, the words mean strength, armour and wyrm”, Helena tells her, making her frown at the last word, an unpleasant mental image of Helena turning into a sort of creepy worm briefly filling her mind, before she tells herself this is nonsense and shrugs it off, “and I should be able to learn it, just… maybe move away a bit? I don’t know what it does, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

Dinah has to agree that this makes sense, and gets up from the couch, moving a few steps away; she has a moment to hope the shout won’t do something very destructive, not wanting Helena to wreck her place on accident, but before she can say anything about that, Helena gets up as well, figuring it’s smarter to do this standing up, just in case it does something to her body which might damage the furniture otherwise.

She runs her fingers over the page again, aware of Dinah watching her, but keeping her focus on the words; she has learned shouts from books before, back in Sicily, but her mentors had been near her back then, ready to help in case something goes wrong, they have told her that things  _ can _ go wrong during learning a new shout, that it can overload the brain of the one learning it if they’re not properly prepared.

For a moment, Helena hesitates, she has had quite the excitement the past few hours, and that is not a good state to be in when trying to learn a new shout; she really doesn’t want her brain to leak out of her ears, but she feels like the words on this page will be important for what is to come, and she has been raised to trust these feelings, so she takes in a deep breath to empty her mind, telling herself that she can do this.

“ _ Mul _ ”, she mumbles the first word of the three, and feels a shudder run down her spine, something she hasn’t felt in quite some time, it has been a while since she has learned a new shout, but it’s a familiar feeling and one she welcomes, and so, she goes on, “ _ qah. Diiv.” _

She hears Dinah gasp as the letters on the page start to shine brightly, tendrils of light rising from the book a few moments later, but she keeps her focus on the book and on the words; the light engulfs her, as it has before, and she feels the power and knowledge of a new shout seep into her mind, the book falling from her hands after a few seconds as the words settle in her brain.

Helena says them again, louder this time and with more conviction, she’s not quite shouting, but she doesn’t have to; it still works, there’s a bright flash of light, and then she’s covered in spikes and scales made of pure, bright light, and she feels stronger, too, clenching her fists as the energy rushes through her veins.

“Holy shit!” Dinah blurts, staring at her wide-eyed; Helena looks at her, and smirks, she feels as if she could rip a tree from the ground, should she choose to, and realizes at once how useful this shout will be for their quest, she’s not quite sure how strong and durable this armour is, but it feels strong, it feels as if it could withstand a blast from a rocket launcher and she’d come out completely unscathed.

For a moment, Helena is tempted to go outside and pick a fight, just to see how it would go, then decides against it, that would be reckless and stupid, and she can’t afford to be any of those things; and so, she focuses on ending the magic, and it fades away a second later, Dinah still looking impressed, eying her with admiration as she dares to step closer again.

“That looked badass”, she lets Helena know, making her smirk a bit again, “it’s like armour, isn’t it?”

“Yeah”, Helena confirms, “and not just that, it made me stronger, too, I could feel it. Good thing you found that, that shout is gonna come in handy in the future.”

Dinah nods, feeling proud that she has been the one to spot that book and to remember where it has been; before she can say anything else though, there’s a knock at the door, and Helena immediately goes tense, pulling in a deep breath as she gets ready to fight whoever is out there.

“Guess you’re not expecting anyone”, Dinah mumbles, keeping her voice low so the person outside won’t hear; Helena shakes her head, not really surprising the singer, and just like Helena has, Dinah pulls in a deep breath as she goes to open the door, figuring it can’t hurt if both of them have their power at the ready.

She pulls the door open, and freezes, because she is staring right down the barrel of a gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for new skills. Not so yay for people with guns at the door. XD


	26. The Cop

Even though she has been aiming her gun at the door, the woman holding said weapon clearly hasn’t expected Dinah to open it; she blinks, then frowns, then lowers the weapon - to Dinah’s relief -, her frown deepening as she stares at the singer.

“Dinah Lance”, she then says, and now Dinah is frowning, too, “did not expect to find you here.”

“Who the fuck are you”, Dinah wants to know in reply, giving the woman a hard look when she tries to peer past her and get a look at Helena, aware that the taller woman is ready to possibly throw the woman against the wall with her voice or maybe even do the fire breath thing, “how do you know my name?”

“Renee Montoya”, the woman introduces herself in response, using her free hand to flash her badge, “GCPD. I knew your mother. And I am wondering why the fuck you would help someone break into our evidence storage and steal things from there.”

Helena has taken note of how Dinah has gone tense when Montoya has mentioned her mother, and the urge to shout at her grows; she fights it down, for now, telling herself to leave this to Dinah for the moment, even though Montoya is trying to peer past the singer, frowning when she spots Helena standing a few feet behind Dinah.

“I knew it is you”, she then declares, looking as if she wants to bring the gun up again, but Dinah is still between Helena and herself, so it wouldn’t do her any good, “what sort of bullshit is this, the two of you and Harley Quinn?”

“Put your gun away and we’ll tell you”, Dinah says, and Helena frowns, not sure this is a good idea, but then, she really doesn’t want that cop to chase them wherever they go and complicate things; Montoya looks doubtful for a moment, then does holster her gun, but Helena figures this doesn’t mean much, quite sure she can draw it again faster than most people would expect if necessary.

“Come in”, Dinah adds once the gun has been put away, glancing at Helena as she steps aside to let Montoya enter, quietly reassuring her it’s okay; and Helena trusts her, so she says nothing, only holding the cop’s gaze when the smaller woman steps into the apartment.

“You caught my name, I imagine”, she says, and Helena is glad she’s not pulling the gun again after all, even though she does still glare at her, “so you gonna tell me yours now? Or are you gonna give me the silent treatment again? Dinah, you know she works for Sionis, right.”

“She does not”, Dinah tells her with a roll of her eyes, while Helena scowls at the mere idea, “she mentions his name and you think she works for him? She works  _ against  _ him. She helped me get away from him, actually.”

“I still don’t know she is”, Montoya points out, something which annoys her quite a bit, apparently; and so, Helena sighs, and makes a decision then and there, she has been told she shouldn’t reveal who she is to too many people, but it might not hurt to have that cop on their side, if only so she won’t try to hinder them.

“I’m Helena Bertinelli”, she thus says, quite bluntly and without much preamble; and if she had been anyone else, she might have laughed at Montoya’s reaction, as the woman’s mouth literally falls open, and while Helena doesn’t laugh, Dinah lets out a snort, clearly amused by the sight. 

“Yeah”, Helena helpfully goes on when Renee doesn’t say anything for a few more moments, “from  _ that _ Bertinelli family.”

“Yeah I figured”, Renee manages, still staring at her as if she’s a ghost, but then, Helena figures, for her, she might as well be, aware of the fact that common knowledge is “all Bertinellis are dead” and not “one Bertinelli survived”; Renee shakes her head as if to clear it, her glare gone though by the time she focuses on Helena again.

“Holy shit”, she says, and now Helena does smirk a tiny bit, as the cop still looks gobsmacked, “um, no offense, but, I mean… this is  _ big _ . How did you even…?”

“Long story”, Helena tells her, not really feeling like getting into it, and to her relief, the cop accepts that, at least for the moment, “so you believe me now when I say I don’t work for Sionis?”

It’s a rather blunt change of topic, but it works; and clearly, this prompts Renee to remember why she has come here in the first place, frowning as she looks from Helena to Dinah and back at Helena again.

“Okay, yeah, I believe that”, she says, to Helena’s slight relief, “but then what did you do at our evidence storage? We arrest a guy who’d been hired by Sionis, and then you show up and talk about him and…”

“...and the end of the world”, Helena finishes for her, and her frown deepens, “yeah, I said that, and yeah, that is what’s gonna happen if we don’t stop him. Which is what Dinah and I are working on, and one of the items we needed to make sure he can’t pull off his plan was in your storage.”

“So what does he want to do”, Renee wants to know, and Helena knows this is it, that this will decide if they will have the cop on their side or not; she takes in a deep breath, Dinah giving her an encouraging look, and then just says it, as bluntly as she has introduced herself minutes ago.

“He wants to bring back the dragons”, she says, and Renee blinks, “and if he manages that, it’ll be the end of the world.”

“Okay”, Renee says after a few moments have ticked by, “honestly, if this was just you telling me this, I’d decide you’re insane. But Dinah is with you, and I knew her mother, and I knew her mother didn’t raise a fool. Dragons? As in, the bigass firebreathing lizards?”

“With wings”, Dinah is the one to say it this time, Helena smiling a bit before she grows serious again as she nods; Renee blinks again, then apparently decides she can’t handle that standing up and sits down somewhat heavily on the couch, Helena shrugging at the look of disbelief the cop shoots her.

“It’s true”, she then says, “it’s an ancient ritual. He needs four stones to pull it off, the guy you’d busted had stolen one of those for him, he already had another one. He has none now and we have three, there’s only one left.”

“Okay, good job?” Renee half says, half asks, Helena shrugging again, it is what she has been sent here to do after all, “you guys know where that last stone is?”

“No”, Helena sighs, realizing she has to reveal at least a bit about what has happened at the massacre fifteen years ago now, “it used to belong to my family but… it was lost, when the shooting happened. I have no idea where it is.”

“The diamond”, Renee realizes, Helena nodding, “it has something to do with all of this? Shit, I thought it was just some prestige thing. Look at us, and our large diamond, hohoho we are so richt… um… I’m sorry, that was thoughtless.”

“It’s fine”, Helena reassures her, earning a look of relief, “and yeah, it does, so we need to figure out where it is and how to get it before Sionis does. You might be able to help with that, being a cop and all.”

“We might work something out”, Renee says in response, Dinah raising her brows in surprise, the cop is believing and accepting of this fairly quickly, but then, Dinah reasons, Renee has known her mother, thus knows that superpowers are a thing, and perhaps, dragons don’t seem too far-fetched then, she herself has believed Helena without a doubt as well, after all.

“I’m building a case against Sionis”, the cop continues, and Dinah is impressed, she knows how powerful Sionis is and that not many dare to work against him in any way, “I’ll help you with finding this diamond, and you help me take him down. He’s got an important shipment coming in tomorrow, I know that, that might be your diamond, or connected to it.”

“Deal”, Helena says at once, and they shake hands on it; and once that has been settled, Renee tells her all about the shipment, where it will be picked up and why she thinks it is connected to the diamond, Helena feeling as if they are another step closer to her as she listens and sure that this has been the right decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Renee joins the fun xD


	27. A Different Sort of Close

“I’m surprised Renee believed you so fast”, Dinah says once the woman in question has left, and Helena and she are cuddling on the couch; Helena lets out a vaguely agreeing noise, and Dinah can tell she’s not really paying attention, focused on something else entirely as she stares off into nothingness.

“Helena?” Dinah thus says, not quite sure how to handle this now - they have this strange connection, and she already feels deeply for her, but now she realizes she doesn’t actually know her that well, and finds herself wondering what to do, what is the right thing to say and what she can do to make this better, suddenly just knowing that Helena is upset about something.

“Helena, babe”, she adds after a few moments have ticked by in silence, glad when at least Helena looks at her now, “what is it? You can tell me, you don’t have to, but if you want to, I’m here.”

To her relief, this clearly has been the right thing to say, as Helena looks a bit less distant and even smiles a little; then she sighs and shrugs, letting her head drop onto the backrest so she can stare up at the ceiling, voice quiet and a bit tired when she does speak up.

“I don’t know”, she says with a sigh, “it’s just… I don’t know. That diamond was one of the reasons why my family… why that happened, you know. Their turf and businesses too, but the diamond as well. And…”

“And?” Dinah gently asks when Helena trails off and doesn’t say anything for a while; the taller woman swallows heavily in response, and Dinah is shocked to see a telltale wetness in her eyes when she turns her head just enough so she can look at her.

“And me”, she quietly says, and Dinah’s heart breaks, “they were after me. Because of what I can do.”

“Sweetheart”, Dinah starts, then realizes she truly has no idea what else to say now, there simply are no words which could make this better; and so, she moves on the couch instead so that she can hug Helena, wrapping her up in her arms and holding her close, Helena hugging her back after a moment, almost clinging to her.

“We’ll make Sionis pay for this”, Dinah tells her after just having held her for a while, “we’ll stop him, and we’ll make him pay, I promise. And I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

She feels Helena nod against her shoulder, then the taller woman pulls in a shuddery breath; when she draws back from the hug though, her eyes are dry and she has regained her composure, even managing a smile when her gaze meets Dinah’s, the singer responding by reaching up with one hand and tenderly cupping her cheek. 

“I mean it”, she says, nodding for emphasis and earning another smile from Helena, “we’re in this together, one hundred percent.”

Helena gives another nod, then leans in for a kiss; it’s slow and tender, and it feels like Dinah is strengthening her promise through the kiss, Helena feeling much better by the time they pull apart again.

“I’m glad we found each other”, she says, blushing fiercely as she is not quite used to speaking so openly about her emotions, “I… I could do this alone, if I had to, but I’m very happy I don’t have to.”

“I’m glad, too”, Dinah reassures her, grasping her hands, the way her thumbs run over her knuckles sending shivers up and down Helena’s spine, “I think I told you this before but… It’s been a while since I really got close to anyone. And I’m glad you’re the one I’m close to, now.”

Helena smiles and pulls her in for another kiss, Dinah kissing her back at once; they have been physically close before, but this is a different sort of closeness, she realizes, one which goes far deeper and weighs heavier, and it makes her heart feel oddly tight as she realizes how much she has missed it to have someone she can truly share her life, her thoughts and her emotions with.

She almost tells Helena she loves her right then and there, but bites the words back, telling herself it’s too early for this, no matter how connected they are; part of her regrets not saying it though, as she can feel it’s true, and somehow, even though she rationally knows it makes no sense, she knows Helena feels the same. 

“Okay”, Helena is the one who ends the moment, after a deep breath, sitting up a bit as if to steel herself, “we better make a plan for tomorrow, if we really want to grab that shipment before Sionis can do so.”

“Right”, Dinah says, needing a moment to regain her concentration to talk business, “we might not simply be able to get it before he does, his contact won’t give it to anyone who’s not him or someone he trusts. But we can go after that person. Or, well, we can go after Zsasz, cause there is no way he will send someone else.”

“Oh, so we can get the diamond  _ and  _ kill Zsasz in the process, awesome”, Helena says happily, sounding as overjoyed as if she’s a kid in the candy store and just has been told she can get whatever she wants; Dinah laughs at her tone and shakes her head, and Helena gives her a confused look, clearly not having an idea what is so amusing. 

“Anyone else would find it disconcerting about how happy you are at a chance to kill Zsasz”, Dinah explains before Helena can ask what is so funny, “but I just… get it. I mean, it’s Zsasz. So yeah, maybe we can get the diamond and kill him, too, but we have to be careful, he’s dangerous.”

“I know”, Helena says at once, and she does know, he has been one of those gunning down her family; for a moment, she wonders if Dinah knows about this, then pushes the thought aside for now, telling herself that there has been enough painful talk about the past and that they have to focus on the task at hand now.

“Okay, so”, she thus says, thinking back to what Renee has told them, “she said he’ll pick it up from the Mayflower Hotel, but she doesn’t know when. We might just have to do surveillance there all day, or at least until he shows up. You know where this place is?”

“Yeah”, Dinah tells her, to her relief, but then, she figures it wouldn’t have been hard to find the place even if Dinah hadn’t known, “I know, and I agree about the surveillance thing. I’ve had a few gigs there before I started working for Sionis, when I was there, they wouldn’t let anyone who’s not staff use the side entrance, so Zsasz will take the main door. This is important to Sionis, so he won’t do anything which might make it risky. He’ll stick to the rules for once in his life.”

“Good”, Helena dryly says, making Dinah smile again; she takes a moment to smile back at her, then they get to work, planning and discussing, using what Dinah remembers of the place, until they have a plan as good as it can be with the limited information they have to work with, and Helena feels confident that soon, the diamond will be in their possession, as well, and then they will have all four stones and soon, all of this will be over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Helena, good thing she has Dinah :)


	28. Zsasz and the Diamond

Helena and Dinah arrive at the hotel early in the next morning, Dinah reasoning that Zsasz won’t have been there already at this time as he usually stays up late with Sionis and only goes to bed once the club closes; she knows they have no way of knowing if this true until Zsasz actually does show up, but Helena trusts her judgement, and calms her worries by telling her that they can still get the diamond from Sionis’ home, should they really have missed Zsasz.

They are both aware that Zsasz will be careful, and knows what DInah’s car looks like, so they not only take Helena’s bike, but park that at a safe distance from the hotel, as well; Dinah knows the area, so she finds them a good spot where they can keep an eye on the entrance, Helena calmy sipping coffee while Dinah feels nervous, she knows what Helena and she can do, but she’s still worried.

“It’ll be fine”, Helena tells her, picking up on her concerns and prompting her to look at her, “I know he’s dangerous, but together, we can handle him, I’m sure. If all else fails, I’ll just firebeathe on him.”

“Helena”, Dinah scolds in response to that, earning a smirk from the taller woman as this is exactly what she has been going for with her somewhat flippant statement, “we’re not supposed to be noticed, remember? Setting someone on fire with your breath will not help us to blend in.”

“If it gets to the point where breathing fire on him is a good option, the blending in failed anyway”, Helena points out, and Dinah has to admit this is not an unreasonable thought to have; she still hopes it won’t come to that as she keeps her gaze on the hotel, waiting for Sionis’ car to pull up, pretty sure that Zsasz won’t take a cab to get here.

She is too tense to feel bored as they sit and wait for Zsasz to show up, and she wonders if Helena feels the same; the woman looks calm at least, just sitting there drinking her coffee, but she doesn’t take her eyes off the hotel for even a second, and Dinah knows how important this is, so she figures she’s not the only one who’s nervous.

“What are you gonna do”, Dinah breaks the not uncomfortable silence after a while, Helena briefly glancing at her before she focuses on the hotel again, “once you got all the stones?”   


“Destroy them”, Helena tells her at once, missing the point of Dinah’s question, “honestly, they should have been destroyed a long time ago, instead of just keeping them around until some maniac shows up to use them.”

“I agree”, Dinah says with a small smile, “but that is not what I meant. What will you do… when we’re done with this quest?”

Helena shrugs at that, she never has put much thought into this while she has been in Sicily; then, after a moment, she smiles as she grasps Dinah’s hand, the singer smiling as well at what the taller woman says a moment later.

“I’m not sure”, she lets Dinah know, “but whatever it is, I hope we can do it together.”

“Yeah”, Dinah agrees at once, squeezing her hand, “I don’t see why not. Not sure if you noticed, but I sort of like having you around.”

“Good”, Helena says with a small laugh, the sound warming Dinah’s heart, “cause I sort of like being around you.”

She leans in for a brief, but gentle kiss, then both remember the task at hand and focus on the hotel again; Dinah doesn’t pull her hand back though, and neither does Helena, the way Dinah’s fingers are curled around her own making her feel good and content, this being the sort of tender touch she hasn’t experienced much after that one fateful day fifteen years ago.

Her mentors have been kind enough, she ponders as she keeps her eyes on the hotel and tries to not focus too much on how Dinah’s hand feels in hers, but while they have taught her well and have prepared her for this, they haven’t been more to her than teachers, not a sort of real family; she knows they love her, in their own way, and she loves them, but what she has with Dinah is different, it goes deeper and it’s special and it makes her feel all warm and tingly inside.

“There”, Dinah distracts her from these ponderings, sitting up straight next to her, her hold on Helena’s hand tightening a bit, “that is one of Sionis’ cars, the little one, he was absurdly proud when he got it. Some rare British model or something.”

The car comes to a stop in front of the hotel, and Helena isn’t surprised when Zsasz gets out; she notices Dinah tense next to her, and remembers what Cassandra has said, about the man having been at her building asking for her, but she knows better than to suggest that Dinah should stay away from him, she can tell from the look in Dinah’s eyes that she’s not scared of the man, she’s angry and she wants to take him down, and Helena can’t blame her for that.

“He’s going in”, she states the obvious, just so she won’t sit here and stare; Dinah nods, and lets go of her hand as she comes to her feet, Helena doing the same, both of them watching how the driver gets out of the car and lights up a cigarette while he waits for Zsasz to return.

“How do we do this”, Dinah wants to know, prompting Helena to look at her again, “hit him in there? Wait for him to come back out?”

“Wait”, Helena decides at once, Dinah nodding her agreement when she continues and gives a reason for her decision, “we don’t know where he is going in there, we might miss him or get seen by him. We just hit him quickly when he comes back out, before he realizes we’re here.”

Dinah nods again to that, and they move closer to the hotel; for a moment, Dinah worries the driver might spot her, recognize her and alarm Zsasz, but the man is busy with his smoke and playing with his phone, not looking up, and while Helena leads the way closer to the building, she makes sure to not get close to his peripheral vision, lessening the chances of him noticing them even further.

Dinah has her focus on the hotel, but does notice a familiar figure from the corner of her eye; she touches Helena’s arm, gets her to slow down, and nods at the girl a few feet down the street, Helena raising her brows when she recognizes Cassandra and immediately sees what the teenager is doing as Cassandra chooses that moment to effortlessly pull a man’s wallet from his pocket.

“Let’s hope she won’t call out to us in case she sees us”, she then says, Dinah shaking her head at once, she never has been a pickpocket herself, but she figures Cass won’t want to attract any sort of attention, and shouting across the street certainly would ruin that; and just when she has that thought, Zsasz steps out of the hotel, briskly walking down the stairs.

Helena gets moving, but Cassandra reaches him before she does; and Helena sees her hand go into his pocket and back out, lightning fast, empty when it goes in and holding a small black box when she pulls back, and she slows down again, a smirk curling her lips as this might make things even easier, all Dinah and she have to do now, she figures, is to convince Cass to hand that over, and that shouldn’t be too hard.

And just when she thinks that, things start to go wrong, and they go wrong  _ fast _ , some man yells to stop the thief and Cassandra takes off running; she doesn’t make it far, running right into the arms of cops who have been close enough to hear the shouting and have been alarmed, and as they grab her and move to get her into the car, Zsasz starts patting his pockets, looking more and more upset as he finds them all empty.

“Shit, shit, shit”, Helena curses as the cops shove Cass into the backseat of their patrol car, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Zsasz not only sees that, but notices Dinah and her as well; his eyes go wide, then narrow, and he snaps something at the driver, the man pushing a few buttons on his phone and holding it to his ear while Zsasz starts moving towards them.

_ Not here, not now _ , Helena decides then and there, there are too many people around who might see and she does not need that many witnesses; they don’t have the diamond, but neither does Zsasz, and that is good enough for her for now, so she grabs Dinah’s arm, ignoring when Zsasz calls out “hey!” as he speeds up his approach.

“We gotta go”, Helena says, Dinah nodding at once, she does want to take down Zsasz, but she does not want to go to jail for it, “come on, now.”

“Little bird!” Zsasz calls out as they both turn and hurry back to where Helena has parked her bike, “I see you, little bird! Roman knows what you did!”

“Fuck you!” Dinah calls back, feeling malicious glee at how his face darkens with rage; then they are at the bike, and both quickly get on it, the tires screeching as Helena drives off, their plan has failed, but Helena tells herself it will be okay as she drives, a new plan already forming while she takes them back to safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cass and her sticky fingers...


	29. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Helena drives back to the apartment as fast as she dares, glancing at her rearview mirrors regularly to make sure Zsasz and the driver aren’t following them; Zsasz apparently has had other things to worry about - like the diamond being gone - and so hasn’t had the driver chase after them, and they make it back to the building with no trouble.

Helena still makes sure to park her bike out of sight from the street, the last thing they need now is Zsasz driving past and recognizing it, and her bike is quite recognizable; then, Dinah and she hurry up to the apartment, and the second they are inside, Helena pulls out her phone and calls Renee, glad now that she has made the deal with the detective, knowing she’s their best bet now.

“Our plan didn’t work out”, she says after a short greeting, feeling how Dinah places her hand on her back and thankful for the calming touch, only now realizing how tense she is, this bothers her more than she wants to admit to herself, “there was something… unexpected. Teenage pickpocket swiping the diamond from Zsasz’ pocket, and then some of your colleagues grabbed her, her name’s Cassandra--” 

“Cain”, Renee finishes for her, and Helena blinks before she lets out an agreeing noise, “yeah, we’ve had her here before. When was this?”

“About fifteen minutes ago”, Helena says, Dinah nodding her agreement, “so your guys should arrive with her soon. Make sure you get the diamond, you hear? We’ll bail the kid out or something, but we  _ need _ that diamond.”

“Yeah, I know”, Renee is quick to agree, “man, talk about bad timing, anyway, I’ll make sure you guys get what you need, I’ll let you know once I got it.”

“Thanks”, Helena says with a small sigh of relief, “I appreciate it, I really do. Keep us posted.”

“You have enough money?” Dinah wants to know once Helena has ended the call, “to bail Cass out?”

Helena shrugs, then nods, figuring the bail won’t be that high for a teenage girl; she knows all they can do for now is wait for Renee’s call, trying hard to ignore how much it bothers her that all she can do is sit around now, but even if she tries to not let her annoyance show, Dinah quickly picks up on it, moving to stand behind her, a mixture of sigh and groan coming from Helena when the singer starts massaging her shoulders.

“You’re so tense”, Dinah comments, raising her brows even though Helena can’t see that, with how she sits with her back to Dinah, it feels as if she is kneading rock instead of muscle, “that can’t be good, come on, try to relax. You know it’ll be okay, we can count on Renee.”

“I know”, Helena says, not quite as sure about this as Dinah, but then Dinah seems to know what she is talking about, and Helena does trust her, “I just… don’t like it when all I can do is sit around.”

“I can tell”, Dinah teases, glad when Helena just turns her head enough so she can smile at her, “here, I’ll distract you. Just focus on my hands.”

She kneads with all her strength, Helena is so tense that Dinah has to give it her all to have an effect; she can tell though that after a bit of this, Helena does relax, even leaning back into her touch, letting out another sigh as her muscles slowly loosen up.

“There, see”, Dinah says with a small smile, “all better, yeah?”

“Yeah”, Helena agrees, then lets her head drop back onto the headrest and gives Dinah puppy dog eyes so cute the singer just has to let out a little “awww” at the sight; she fulfils the unspoken wish by bending over Helena and kissing her, their position makes the kiss a bit awkward, but she still enjoys it, and judging from how Helena sighs into her mouth, she feels quite similar.

“Much better”, Helena declares once Dinah has pulled back again, making the singer smile again; and just then, her phone vibrates in her pocket, two short bursts which signal an incoming text, and she moves to sit next to Helena again before she pulls it out to check who has texted her.

“Urch”, she lets out when she sees the contact name on the screen, for a moment tempted to just toss the phone aside and ignore it, “it’s Sionis. Probably some random threats and insults after Zsasz saw us today.”

“Just another reason to kick his ass if it’s that”, Helena thoughtfully says, and Dinah finds herself smiling; those words make it easier for her to actually look at the text, and she taps on the screen so it will be displayed, frowning when there’s no word, but just an image, and that takes a few moments to load.

Then it does show, and she gasps while Helena goes tense next to her again, the sharp intake of breath she hears from the taller woman showing her that she’s not unaffected, either.

_ Surprise _ , Sionis texts while Dinah is still staring at the photo, the picture showing a tied up Cassandra with Zsasz standing behind her and grinning,  _ I hear you know this little thief. You don’t want Victor to go to work on her, you call me right now. _

“Shit”, she lets out, that short word enough to let Helena hear the tremble in her voice; Helena is quick to put her arm around her, giving her strength as she holds her close, her own voice firm and unwavering when she speaks up.

“Call him”, she says, Dinah looking from the phone and at her, “agree to whatever he wants. We’ll figure something out, once we know.”

Dinah nods, but still has to take a few steadying breaths before she can push the  _ Call Contact _ button; Helena’s arm is still around her, her hand resting on her shoulder and rubbing small, soothing circles, and that keeps her from hanging up again right away when Sionis takes the call and she hears his voice.

“Little bird”, he greets her, and she can  _ hear _ the smarmy smile on his face and it makes her skin crawl, “how fast you were to call now. It hurts me that this random little thief gets this reaction, while you just would drop me like a hot potato the moment it suited you.”

“What do you want”, Dinah demands to know in reply, Helena having scooted closer so she can hear Sionis too, and her face darkens at the man’s next words, even though she can’t say she’s surprised.

“The gems, of course”, he says, with a practically audible eyeroll, “don’t pretend like you actually have to ask. You are familiar with the Booby Trap, I imagine.”

“Yeah”, Dinah manages, she has known it would lead to that, but it still makes her stomach clench; Sionis chuckles, and that makes her skin crawl again, and she feels Helena pull her even closer, taking in another deep breath to keep her composure while the man speaks up again.

“You will be there at ten”, he orders, “with your rude new friend, and with the gems. You hand them over, and you’ll get the little thief in one piece. For every minute you’ll be late, Victor will cut a slice off of her, so you better make sure you don’t get stuck in traffic. Top area of the place.”

And with that, he hangs up, before Dinah has the chance to say anything; she puts the phone down and lets out a shaky breath, Helena moving her hand to rub her back soothingly, her voice quiet and calm when she speaks up, making Dinah look at her.

“You know this place?” she asks, earning a brief nod, “know the layout? Can he trap us there?”

“It’s at a former amusement park”, Dinah tells her, and she can tell that the gears in Helena’s head are turning even as she continues talking, “sort of like… a funhouse? He could set up a trap there, if he wanted. But he’ll want the gems first.”

“Yeah”, Helena says, sounding thoughtful now, “smart of him, to want them there, if it was a place of fun, it will be… strong. All places where strong emotions were experienced are. He’ll want to pull it off right there.”

“If he has the stones”, Dinah points out, “he can’t do it without them.”

“I won’t let Zsasz get to work on an innocent kid”, Helena says at once, sounding so taken aback by the mere thought that Dinah believes her at once, “let him have the stones, we can figure out what to do once Cassandra is away from him and safe. And I have a plan.”

She sounds so confident and sure of herself and her plan that Dinah immediately feels better too; and as Helena starts explaining her plan, Dinah’s confidence grows as well, and by the time Helena is done, she is sure it will work out and everything will be fine.

Sionis might think he has them trapped between a rock and a hard place, with Cassandra as his hostage, Dinah ponders while they both start making calls, but he will be in for a surprise, and she hopes everything will work out the way they want it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A showdown is coming... xD


	30. The Booby Trap

Helena knows better than to just drive up to the place and alert Sionis to their presence with the sound of her bike’s engine, even though she figures he has Zsasz or some other henchman watching the entrance and thus will know when they arrive; still she parks at a safe distance away, and they approach on foot, having arrived early enough that they can risk that even with the time Sionis has set for them.

“Wait”, Helena murmurs as they approach the building in which Sionis allegedly is waiting, Dinah stopping dead in her tracks at once; she gives Helena a questioning look, but the taller woman is focused on something up ahead, Dinah impressed with how soundlessly she moves as she starts walking again after a few moments.

And another few seconds later, Dinah hears the dull  _ thud _ of a fist meeting a body, followed by a louder thud when said body goes down; Helena comes back right after that, dusting off her hands, shrugging at the look Dinah gives her at her reappearance.

“Some guy in a mask”, she then explains, keeping her voice low just in case there are more around who might hear her, “Sionis probably put him up to surprise us. There might be more around, so we better be careful.”

Dinah nods her agreement to that, she can’t quite move as quietly as Helena, but she tries hard to not make too much noise; they encounter two more guys on the way to the entrance, dispatch of them easily though, and just when the second guy drops, they can hear a window above them open, neither of them surprised when Sionis pokes his head out.

“My little bird is early”, he declares, and Dinah feels the urge to kick his teeth in at hearing him call her that again, “so good to see you again, Dinah. Come on up. Bring your friend.”

He grins and pulls back from the window, Dinah and Helena exchanging a look before they enter the building; the stairs leading up to the top room are quite old and creaky, Helena realizing that even she would have had a hard time to sneak up there, so it doesn’t really matter Sionis knows they are there, he would have been aware of their presence either way with how loud those stairs are.

They find Sionis, Zsasz and Cassandra in the room on top of the stairs, Sionis standing with his hands behind his back near artfully arranged unlit candles while Cassandra is sitting on a ratty old couch, still tied up, and Zsasz is standing next to her, idly toying with his knife, looking disappointed when Helena and Dinah step into the room.

“Aw”, he lets out, smirking though at the glare Dinah shoots his way, clearly not very impressed, “here you are on time. I was hoping for a finger or two. Maybe an ear.”

“We’re here”, Dinah says, gaze focusing on Sionis as she knows she will scream at Zsasz otherwise, and she can’t take that risk as long as Cassandra is close to him, “and we brought the stones. Now let her go.”

“The stones first”, Sionis demands, not really surprising Dinah, she has figured he wouldn’t give up his hostage before having the stones in his hands; Helena responds by pulling them out of her pocket, unimpressed when he responds to her movement by aiming a gun at her, even though she can see him relax when she opens the small black box and presents the three gems to him.

“A shame, really”, he then says, going as far licking his lips, Dinah feeling grossed out all over again, “you worked so hard to get these. Did you know I had Victor kill the two guys who were on duty the night you stole the Dragon’s Blood from me? Such failures. Now hand them over.”

He holds his free hand out, aiming the gun steadily at Helena with the other one; she places the box in his hand, halfway expects him to try shooting her, but he does no such thing, smirking as he takes a step back, then nods at Zsasz, the man responding by grabbing Cassandra and yanking her up from the couch, shoving her towards Dinah quite roughly, the singer managing to grab her just in time to keep her from falling.

“Come on”, Dinah says as she hurriedly unties her hands, “get out of here, come on, you’ll be okay. Renee and Harley are outside, they’ll get you to safety, come on.”

“She can go”, Sionis tells them as Dinah undoes the knots and Cassandra is freed, “but the two of you stay. I want you to witness my triumph. Victor, make sure they don’t try anything.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing”, Helena tells him, not sounding as if she believes she can change his mind though, and not bothering to look at Zsasz, not even when he pulls a gun of his own and aims it at her, “what do you think will happen, the dragons will appear and they will be your loyal pets? They’ll eat you alive.”

“We’ll see about that”, Sionis says, and Helena can tell he barely has listened, busy with setting up the stones for the ritual; and he has done his homework on that, Helena has to admit, he positions them correctly and quickly lights up the candles, Zsasz glancing at him every now and then, but keeping his focus on Helena and Dinah, the gun pointed in their general direction, both men clearly sure that this will keep them under control.

Helena glances at Dinah, raises her brows, and the second Zsasz looks at Sionis again, Dinah gives a barely perceptible nod; they pull a deep breath in at the same time, and just as Zsasz looks at Helena again, she snaps  _ “fus ro!” _ at him, enough to throw him back and against the wall and to have him drop the gun, but not enough to endanger the very structure of the building, while Dinah lets out a short burst of a cry, her power hitting Sionis just a second later and throwing him backwards, as well.

Zsasz struggles to get back to his feet, but Helena gives him no chance to do so; she’s upon him before he can do more than get up on his knees and slams her knee right into his face, throwing him back again, taking a moment to kick the gun away before she grabs his collar and yanks him up so he dazedly has to stare at her face.

“Do you know who I am?” she demands to know, from the corner of her eye noting how Dinah goes after Sionis; Zsasz manages a brief shake of his head, and she’s darkly satisfied to see he looks frightened now, he’s used to being in control and to being feared, but she has the control now and she doesn’t fear him, not the slightest.

“You’ve killed my family”, she helps him to remember, and his eyes go wide as he realizes who she is, perhaps seeing her resemblance to her father now, “and now, I’ll kill you.”

He opens his mouth as if he wants to say something, but Helena doesn’t let him; she snaps three harsh words, and fire bursts from her lips, Zsasz screaming as the flames engulf him and quickly spread to his clothes, Helena letting go of him and stepping back so he won’t get anywhere near her as he flails on the ground.

“Victor!” Sionis cries out as the man’s movements die down, Helena has used the full shout and the flames have burned hot and strong; seeing Zsasz die seems to give Sionis new energy, as he brutally pushes Dinah aside, then brings up his gun again to aim it at Helena, Dinah recovering and grabbing his arm though just a second before he fires, pushing his arm up so that the shot goes wild.

Sionis starts shouting different words then, they sound like gibberish to Dinah, but Helena recognizes them, and her blood runs cold; she starts to make her way towards where Sionis has placed the gems, but Zsasz chooses this moment to use last bit of strength to grab her around the ankle, not truly able to hinder her, but holding her back long enough so Sionis can keep going.

“Dinah, shut him up!” Helena snaps as she yanks her foot out of Zsasz’ grasp, and just then, Sionis brings out the last word, and there’s a noise like a massive thunderclap right in the room with them, Sionis grinning as the ground starts to rumble beneath their feet a moment later.

“Yes”, he then cheers himself on, while Helena can only stand and stare, her heart racing in her chest as she knows what this means, “I’ve done it! I’ve done it!  _ Yes!” _

“He’s right”, Helena manages when Dinah moves to her side, her eyes full of fear and worry, “he’s done it. He’s woken the dragons.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh... But yay, Zsasz is gone XD


	31. Destiny

There’s a massive roar from outside, and then, the roof is torn away as the dragon swipes at it; Helena uses her newly found armour shout without thinking and, just as instinctively, tackles Dinah to the ground and covers her with her body as bits and pieces of the destroyed roof rain down around them, the conjured armour keeping her from getting hurt while her body in turn protects Dinah.

“I’ve awakened you!” Sionis yells at the dragon, glowing yellow eyes focusing on him, and he shakes his fists in triumph, “I have, and now you will--”

The dragon swipes him aside almost carelessly with a taloned front leg, the way a human might snip a bothersome bug away, and just like that, Sionis is gone, Helena can’t say she’s surprised, but Dinah does look somewhat startled, having been halfway sure that Sionis would indeed be able to control the dragon and use it to wreak havoc on Gotham.

“Dinah”, Helena says as she gets off of her and pulls her to her feet, “go, find the others, and get out of here. I’ll take care of this.”

“What do you mean, you’ll take care of this”, Dinah demands to know, the dragon roaring at the sky, but apparently not having taken note of them yet, “look at this, how do you want to take care of this?!”

“It’s what I’ve been born and trained to do”, Helena tells her, and Dinah can only stare at her, so far having thought that the men in Sicily only had taught Helena how to use her powers, but that none of them actually had expected this to happen, “if anyone can stop this, it’s me. Go, before it notices us, and find the others. Get away with them, a good distance, the powers…”

“You’ll find us”, Dinah half states, half asks, instead of going as Helena has told her to, “right? When you’ve… handled this?”

Helena pulls her close in response and kisses her, firmly and with determination; it doesn’t last long, they know there’s not much time, but still Dinah feels breathless when Helena pulls back again, her hands still on her arms and her gaze not wavering as she looks at her.

“I love you”, she says, and Dinah feels her heart clench up as she realizes that Helena isn’t answering her question, is avoiding to do so on purpose, “now go. Please.”

“I love you too”, Dinah manages, her own voice quivering, “and you better come find us. When you’re done.”

She turns before Helena can react, and hurries down the stairs, having to be careful as the dragon’s initial attack has damaged them, as well; she hurries away before Helena has a chance to reply, and she doesn’t look back.

She knows what she would see if she did, the quiet knowledge Helena has that she won’t make it out of this alive, and she doesn’t want that to be the last thing she sees of Helena.

* * *

Helena is grateful that the dragon doesn’t pay any attention to her, as it gives her a few precious seconds to prepare, and it gives Dinah time to get away; she has noticed that Dinah doesn’t seem affected by her power, but this will be different, she’ll have to give it her all to stop this, and she doesn’t want to risk Dinah getting hurt in the process.

She waits a few more moments, just to give Dinah more time, then she  _ shouts _ , and the dragon’s head immediately snaps around and the malicious eyes focus on her, filled with a primal rage and an intelligence she has known to expect, but it still startles her, and it takes a lot of her willpower to stand her ground when the dragon’s lips pull back and reveal large, unsettlingly sharp and pointy teeth.

_ “Dovahkiin _ ”, the dragon rumbles, and Helena feels it in her bones, the strength of its voice, but she knows she has strength too, and she won’t let this beast get away and wreak havoc.

She shifts to get a firm, secure stand, and that is enough to set the dragon off, it recognizes her as a rival and it roars, and Helena responds with a shout of her own, it’s powerful enough to tear down what is left of the roof as it hits the dragon, and the way it roars in response tells her she has hurt it.

The baleful yellow eyes focus on her, and the dragon responds with an attack of its own; Helena manages to get out of the way just in time to avoid the swipe of a massive taloned paw, then shouts at the dragon again, darkly satisfied when she hurts it again.

She can feel the drain of using her power like this already, it not only drains her body, but seems to use up the essence of her very soul; and she’s glad there’s only one dragon, she’s not sure she would be able to take more than one.

Helena shouts again at the monstrous beast, and hits it again with the force of her voice and power; the world starts to blur around the edges, but she knows she can’t stop, and she won’t, not until she is done.

The dragon changes tactics, and she can tell what is about to happen from the way it sucks in a deep breath; quickly, Helena dives behind the nearest cover, glad now that the ceiling has been destroyed as this has created a mound of wood, stone and metal she can hide behind, and she presses herself flat to the floor behind it the blink of an eye before the dragon spews a burst of fire at her.

The flames barely miss her, and she fights the urge to squeeze her eyes shut; the dragon keeps the stream going for an unsettlingly long time, but Helena forces herself to not move too early, waiting until she can be sure the fire has stopped before she springs to her feet again.

Knowing that the dragon uses fire makes it easy for Helena to choose with what to attack in return, and she makes use of the shout her mentors always have, quite uncreatively, called frost breath; she puts her all into it, and a trail of thin ice is left on the ground as her voice sends the frost against the dragon, the beast roaring much louder this time when the attack hits.

_ Yeah, you don’t like that, do you _ , Helena darkly thinks to herself, and pulls in a deep breath to do it again; she can feel the power drain her further, but she can also tell the dragon is getting weaker, and she tells herself she can do this.

This is her destiny after all, and she’s willing and ready to do whatever it takes to fulfil it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *plays suspenseful music*


	32. A Storm of Voices

Renee, Harley and Cassandra all keep looking back as they run, and Dinah can’t really blame them, the dragon is an impressive sight and even as they run from the Booby Trap, they can hear it roar and can Helena shout in response, the sheer power of her voice enough to send shivers up and down Dinah’s spine even as the distance grows.

“Keep going”, she tells the other three, and Renee looks quite glad to do so, Dinah can’t blame her for that, either - she knows it would be smart for her to do the same, to keep running as Helena has told her, but part of her can’t do that, doesn’t want to do that, part of her wants to go back.

This same part is sure she can help, that she doesn’t need to let Helena do this alone,  _ can’t  _ let her do it alone, she’s not sure if that is even remotely true, but the mere thought of Helena not coming out of this alive makes her heart hurt so much that she has to take the risk.

“Get Cass to safety”, she thus says, slowing down, and the stare Renee sends her way makes it clear that the detective already knows what she is going to do before she continues, “I need to go back, Helena will need help with this.”

For a moment, Renee looks as if she wants to protest, perhaps ask Dinah if she has lost her damn mind; then, she just nods, and they get moving again while Dinah turns and runs back to the Booby Trap, the dragon roaring in pain again just as she gets close to the entrance.

Dinah grimaces at the sound, it is so loud she worries for a moment it’ll blow out her eardrums, but she tells herself she can handle this, if Helena can then so can she, and Helena needs her help, she knows this and she knows she has to do this.

So, she quickly enters the building and makes her way up the stairs, hearing Helena shout at the dragon as she hurries to join her, in that ancient, rough language she has heard her use before; Helena stands with her back to her when she reaches the room, and her own shouting and the dragon’s roars keep the taller woman from hearing her, so Helena only realizes Dinah is there when she steps up to her and grasps her hand.

“Dinah”, she manages, and Dinah notices a few things at once, the scratchy sound of her voice and the dark rings beneath her eyes, this is taking a lot of her, her hand is cold and clammy, too, “what are you…?”

“You’re not doing this alone”, is all Dinah has to say - before she turns towards the dragon and  _ screams _ , she has a moment to realize she hasn’t told Helena to cover her ears, but it seems the taller woman is unaffected by her cry, adding her own voice after a moment, the dragon roaring in again when the powers hit it full force.

The roar grows weaker this time, and the massive boy is shuddering; Dinah pauses just long enough for a deep breath, then keeps going, and so does Helena, the dragon writhing in clear pain now; Dinah can feel Helena’s hand in hers grow even colder, but she keeps screaming at the beast, and Helena shouts again and again as well, hitting the dragon over and over, neither of them willing to stop before this is over.

The dragon roars again, but the roar is far from as powerful as it has been before; Dinah pulls in another breath, she can feel her own strength wavering, but she senses they are close, and so, she screams for a third time, practically able to see how her power hits the massive beast.

The noise the dragon lets out this time is more of a grunt than a roar, and it shudders again - before it slowly collapses, as if in slow motion, the massive body sinking towards the ground, but still landing there with enough force to make the whole building shake, and Dinah has to struggle to not lose her footing.

She manages to stay on her feet, but Helena doesn’t, her hand slipping out of Dinah’s grasp as she goes down, and she doesn’t move to get up again right away as Dinah has expected her to.

“Helena…?” she manages, her own voice hoarse now, she hasn’t used her power much in a long time and now she has screamed almost continuously for quite some time, “babe…?”

There’s no reaction, Helena is flat on her back and not moving, and Dinah starts to get scared, and this feeling only grows when she realizes not even Helena’s chest is moving, there’s no rise and fall of slow steady breaths, there is nothing.

“Helena!” she cries out now, rushing to her side; she drops to her knees next to the other woman, and grasps her hand, not sure what to do, she has been taught first aid a long time ago, but she’s not sure this will do any good at this point.

Now up close, Dinah can see how much of a toll this has taken on Helena, her face is ashen and sweaty, the rings beneath her eyes so dark they look like bruising; and as Dinah is closer to her now, she can see that part of her hair has gone grey, and her heart clenches up as she asks herself if this could have been avoided, had she only come back sooner.

“Helena”, she says again, nervously grabbing her hand, then letting go of it again as she realizes this won’t help much, wringing her hands instead, “Helena, no, come on. You can’t do this to me, not now, not when we’re done and can be together.”

Her sight blurs, and she belatedly realizes tears fill her eyes; she hears someone on the stairs, but she doesn’t look, keeping her gaze on Helena, figuring it’s the others coming back, they probably have seen the dragon go down and want to find out now if Helena and she are okay.

“Helena, come on”, she says again, the creaking of the stairs signalling the others coming closer, but she keeps her gaze on Helena, grasping her hand again now after all, “come on, please.”

She does consider CPR again, not sure it will help, but maybe Renee can assist her, and maybe, together, they will be able to bring Helena back, so she won’t have to lose her so shortly after finding her; and so, Dinah now does look towards the stairs, blinking her tears back as she tells herself she’ll keep it together, she has to, so she can help Helena and get her back.

She looks towards the stairs just in time to see Sionis and the gun he holds in a bloodied hand, blood streaming down his face as well, turning it into a nasty grimace as he smiles at her, and she freezes.

“Little bird”, he rasps, more blood trickling from his mouth as he speaks, and she crazily wonders how he is actually standing upright; he says nothing else, but keeps the gun aimed at her, despite the visible tremble of his hand.

Dinah stares into the dark hole of the barrel, and sees his finger tense on the trigger, and realizes she has no idea if she has enough left for one final burst of power or if this is it, if she will die here right next to Helena, after all they have been through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh...


	33. Soul to Take

Sionis always has been fond of bright, shiny things, so Dinah isn’t surprised that the bright glow which starts to form around the dragon distracts him.

To be fair, she is distracted, as well, the dragon is on the ground motionless, but this strange glow is building up around the body, until it’s so bright she can barely look at it; and then, as if that isn’t strange enough, the glow starts to  _ move _ , and she has to squint when the light rushes past her and straight at Helena.

Dinah is still holding Helena’s hand as this happens, and she feels pleasant warmth replace the cold clamminess of her palm; the light keeps streaming into her chest, it looks like she is absorbing it even as she lies there motionless, and Dinah realizes she is fortunate that Sionis is just as fascinated by this as she herself is, having forgotten that he wants to shoot her as he stands there and stares.

The light lessens, grows thinner and weaker, but still finds its way to Helena; it slows down to a trickle and then stops and is gone, and for a few seconds, nothing at all happens, Dinah and Sionis are both staring at Helena, for the moment practically having forgotten the other one is there as they wait to see what happens.

Then Helena opens her eyes, and there is something powerful and  _ ancient _ in them; she looks at Dinah for a second, then either senses Sionis’ presence or sees him from the corner of her eye, her gaze shifting to him, his eyes going wide as well while his finger once more tightens on the trigger, the gun moving from Dinah to Helena in the same instant.

Clearly Sionis sees her as the bigger threat now, she is back and awake and she looks  _ angry _ , but Dinah won’t have any of that, Helena just has woken up again when Dinah has been halfway sure that she’s gone for good, and she won’t let Sionis take her away again now, just seconds later.

She hasn’t been sure if she can pull off another cry, but at this danger, she finds herself quite easily able to, a short, but sharp shout is enough to send Sionis reeling, and she goes after him at once, from the corner of her eye seeing Helena sit up while she kicks Sionis and sends him down to the ground fully.

Quickly, Dinah grabs the gun from him, before he can recover, and aims it at him; Helena comes to her feet and moves to stand beside her, raising her brows at the man, clearly having expected him to be still alive as little as Dinah has, but even if Dinah won’t shoot him, Helena figures he won’t have much longer, he is still bleeding and panting now, and clearly unable to get back onto his feet.

“You know”, she says, Dinah glancing at her for a second before she looks at Sionis again, not wanting to give him the chance to try anything, “even if you don’t shoot him, he’ll be dead in ten minutes, max. He doesn’t look too good.”

“No, he doesn’t”, Dinah has to agree, and he actually has the nerve to chuckle, prompting the singer to give him a hard look; he grins, exposing bloodied teeth, not appearing all too bothered even though it’s obvious Helena has been right with her assessment of his state.

“Right”, he says, voice weak and trembling, but they still hear him well enough, “just leave me here to die. You don’t have the balls to pull the trigger, little bird.”

Dinah answers him by shooting him, right in the head, glaring at him as he slumps over and dies; she lowers the gun and shakes her head, Helena looking from the dead man at her when she speaks up again.

“I’ve always hated that nickname”, she says, and after a moment, Helena snorts laughter, and Dinah smiles as well - before she drops the gun and moves to hug her, and Helena hugs her back, and for a while, they just stand there and hold each other, fully realizing that this is over and that both of them are fine.

* * *

“Okay”, Dinah says a while later, as they are making their way out of the Booby Trap carefully, the building has taken quite a bit of damage and the last thing they need now is for any of it to fall on them, “what the fuck happened back there with that lightshow? Honestly, I thought you’re gone and then… what was that?”

“I’m not sure”, Helena has to admit, Dinah raising her brows at her, “I was told this might happen, if I ever do end up killing a dragon, as unlikely as that has seemed back at Sicily. My mentors said that I might… absorb its soul, its essence, after it is dead, a perk of being dragonborn, I imagine?”

“Quite the perk”, Dinah nods at once, stopping to pull her in for a brief kiss the moment they are out of the building and in relative safety, “honestly, I thought you’re dead, I was just about to start CPR when that happened.”

“I’m fine”, Helena reassures her at once, even though Dinah can see that, her facial colour looks healthier again and at a closer look, Dinah is amazed to see that the grey has vanished from her hair again, as well, “but I couldn’t have done that without your help, so… thank you. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

Dinah kisses her again in response, briefly thinking back to when Helena has told her she loves her, when she has thought she’d die fighting the dragon, and she finds herself smiling as she pulls back from the kiss, moving to embrace the taller woman again, smiling only wider when Helena immediately returns the hug.

“I love you”, Dinah lets her know, suddenly feeling the need to say it when they’re not in a life and death situation, when it’s a moment of peace for both of them; Helena smiles, a bit bashful now, and even blushes a bit, voice firm and secure though when she responds.

“I love you too”, she tells the singer, and Dinah’s heart melts; she pulls her in for another kiss, and hugs her tight, and as Helena kisses her back and makes sure to hold her as close as she can, she knows that they both mean it, and that things will be good for them in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pew, only the bad guys are dead XD


	34. Future

“I don’t even want to know what the fuck went down there”, Renee declares as Helena and Dinah catch up to Harley, Cassandra and her, looking relieved though to see them alive and well despite her words, “you guys okay?”

“Fine”, Dinah has time to say, and then Cassandra is moving and hugs her surprisingly tight; Helena has a moment to smile, then Cass pulls back from the hug just long enough so she can grab her and yank her closer as well, the three of them ending up in a group hug, Harley letting out an “awww” at the sight before she moves to join as well, and after another second, so does Renee, the five of them forming quite the huddle as they stand there.

“Quinn”, Renee says after a while, raising her brows at the younger woman, “I’m pretty sure you didn’t aim for me, but that  _ is _ my butt you are squeezing.”

“Oh damn”, Harley says, not sounding all too perturbed, removing her hand though, to Renee’s relief, her brow furrowing again when Harley goes on, “you’re right, I was going for Helena, but hey, nice butt, especially considering your age.”

“Hey!” Renee and Dinah say at the same time, Helena smirking a bit when Dinah is the first to continue, “keep your hands away from Helena’s butt. That butt is mine to grab and mine alone.”

“It’s true”, Helena shrugs when Harley looks at her questioningly; Harley pouts and sighs in reply, recovers quickly though, clapping her hands as she peers back to where the dragon has fallen a short while ago.

“That was epic”, she then declares, Helena smiling a bit again, “how that beast went down. But I pity the ones who have to clean that up.”

“Not our problem”, Dinah declares, prompting Helena to raise her brows as she figures that even in a city like Gotham, a dead dragon is an unusual sight, only for the singer to prove her wrong when she continues, “knowing this city, they will get rid of it and hush it up. Honestly, I just want to get out of here and find a good burger joint or something, I’m starving.”

“Oh God, me too”, Helena says at once, apparently, Dinah thinks to herself, dragon soul isn’t very filling; Harley points out she knows a good taco place, and they all are quick to agree to that, the five of them leaving the former amusement park together without looking back, leaving it all behind as they walk together.

* * *

Quite a while later, Helena and Dinah are back at the apartment, snuggled up to each other on the couch, filled with tacos and drinks and feeling content, Dinah idly drawing complicated invisible symbols on Helena’s thigh with her index finger as she enjoys being so close to the taller woman.

“So”, she breaks the comfortable silence after a while, making Helena look at her, “what are you gonna do now? You got any plans for after your victory?”

“No”, Helena says at once, and Dinah isn’t really surprised, she has realized that Helena has been sure she’d die back at the Booby Trap, so it’d make sense that she has made no plans for the day after fulfilling her mission, a dead person doesn’t need a plan, “honest? I didn’t think I’d get out of there alive. And neither did my mentors, they didn’t outright say it, but I could tell.”

“Too bad they have no phones”, Dinah thinks out loud, making Helena smile a bit again, “you could call them and surprise the shit out of them.”

“I was thinking about writing them a letter”, Helena tells her, “that might not surprise them as much as a phone call, but they are old anyway, maybe I shouldn’t shock them too much as it is.”

“Yeah, good thinking”, Dinah has to admit, “but hey, look, now you have one thing planned for the future: write a letter.”

“Yeah”, Helena agrees with a small laugh, Dinah’s eyes lighting up at the sound, “and I got another thing I’m planning to do a lot.”

“Oh?” Dinah wants to know, curious and somehow completely missing what Helena is going for, “and what thing is that?”

“This”, Helena mumbles, and then she’s kissing her, and Dinah kisses her back at once, moving so she can wrap both arms around her and pull her close, until Helena is practically lying on top of her.

“I like you when you do this”, she says as Helena pulls back, then demands another kiss, and Helena gladly fulfils her wish; afterwards, they get comfortable on the couch again, and Dinah sighs, feeling good and content, better than she has in quite a while.

“I’m very happy you’re not dead”, she says, Helena snorting before she reassures her she’s happy she’s not dead, either; that earns her another kiss, then Dinah lets out a thoughtful “hmmm”, shrugging at the questioning look Helena gives her.

“You still got your power, don’t you”, she half asks, halfs states, making Helena nod, “and so do I. And there’s more assholes like Sionis out there so…”

“So we might just have found something we can do”, Helena finishes for her, and Dinah nods; they do have a contact to the cops with Renee, and one to Gotham’s shadier side with Harley, a good starting point, she figures, and God knows there are more than enough criminal assholes in Gotham to keep them busy.

“I like the sound of that”, Helena tells her, making her smile again, “sounds like a good plan for the future.  _ Our  _ future.”

“I agree”, Dinah nods, then pulls her close again for another kiss, and as Helena kisses her back, she knows this is the right thing to do for the both of them, a good way to use their powers, and she also knows that, as long as they will do this together, things will work out well for them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All is well and it's done :D I had a lot of fun writing this - hope you had fun reading it and that I'll see you at the next one ;)

**Author's Note:**

> This one's gonna be long, folks xD The longest fic I have written for this pairing so far. I hope you'll enjoy what's to come :D


End file.
